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."
Anyone tested this in Wine (or something with better 3D support like Cedega) yet? Any luck?
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
I get a CRC error when I try to unpack the .exe
Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know. IT'S BEEEEEETAAAAA.
Google should change their logo to put that little Beta under the 'le'.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Looks like we need to take advantage of this to plot Wi-Fi Everywhere. Rock on, guys, see you at the next interview interval.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
It is like NASA World Wind, but better.
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This is the best web application I have seen for years. Now I will be able top spy on my neighbours from the other side of the house!
C'mon...
Google, you're all about Linux- why can't ya come up with a Linux (and a MacOS X) version, hm?
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Aw man, c'mon Google!
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!
Every week for Google is a "best week." This does seem useful, as I am terrible with directions.
Blech. 'Nuff sed.
Oh well, what the hell...
Wow, this is great. The images are better than what they have for Google Maps, at least for my house (I can zoom in a lot farther). And the tilting and rotating are really fun. They have a few famous sightseeing places included by default, and just rotating and zooming around the Three Sisters or Yosemite was almost breathtaking. Integrating with their direction and local services is probably a good idea, though I doubt I'll use it much, but the images themselves are very well done. Good job, Google.
Its actually pretty addictive for a GIS geek like myself. Plus it was neat to have it help me plan my camping trip this weekend.
It totally blows away any geographical user interface ESRI or Autodesk or anyone else has. They should be embarrassed with their current ArcIMS and MapGuide products - such rudimentary interfaces and poor performance.
Whats even more interesting is the Google Earth Enterprise suite. Being able to load my own satellite data and GIS data into this would be interesting. But like I've said before in other posts about google maps, the biggest problem for GIS groups would be the lack of an "Identify" tool (perhaps its there but I havent seen it in any of the screenshots). And still no scale bar at the bottom either, though they do have a north arrow.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
Get your own free personal location tracker
New York is full of them. Just use the Shift-Arrow combinations to tilt the view.
Bill
It's my Sig and you can't have it. Mine! All Mine!
The most giving and innovative collection of people in the world? It's cliched to say, but holy crap every day it seems like something amazing is done by this company. Big ups.
adventure-today.com
You get 512M in cereal boxes these days.
Well, considering I saw 256mb sticks of ram on newegg.com for 7.99 a few days ago, I'm not so sure it's really such a big deal. :]
painting waypoint, tracks and routes over the maps?
Well, I guess Slashdot already have a quite complete coverage of Google stuff, but if you wan't to beat the rush for some hours I recommend the Google Blog (with RSS)
Won't be long before someone comes up with a version of Hell. Oh, wait a minute. I forgot that AOL cornered that market. I'm sure Microsoft is working on something, and an open source version shouldn't be too far behind. Although it's a bit hard to improve on hot, hotter, and hottest.
If you run a recent Windows machine (which is what's needed) which does *not* have 512MB of RAM, I pity you.
Q: How can Google afford to give away so much for free?
A: Volume.
I can't wait to see what else is in store. I have been reading the concept of all this tying together to be like a portable OS, which would be great. All they would need to really kick this off is some sort of office suite, storage, and calendar functionality, right?
Who's with me?
I just "splurged" and bought myself a $29.95 subscription to Keyhole a few days ago. Now what?
Man, just my luck. Just when I thought being able to show girls how I zoomed into their backyard and saw a fuzzy sattelite photo of them sunbathing topless was gonna get me laid. Now every Joe Schmo geek will be able to do it.
I guess I'll just stick to writing some social network things until it finally happens for me.
I noticed this in conjunction with the giving away of CNN video last week. Is this another death knell in the paid content arena?
The thing I am beginning to notice is that the apparently we, internet users as a group, are against the idea of paying web based subscriptions. However, we are willing to pay money to get better services or to actually "own" a product. Case in point for google, the ability to use NMEA GPS to feed directly into google earth is worth an extra twenty dollars. And I do believe that iTunes is wildly more popular than napster for this very reason. If this trend continues to hold, should yahoo start offering us those music downloads for free, albeit at a lower quality? (Since they already stream music for free from launch).
By the way is there any mention of any ads within the software, or is google just giving this out for free now?
Currently hooked on AMP
"Apple Macintosh computers are not supported at this time (but we are working on it)." OSX users rejoice :)
Kiteboarding Gear Mention slashdot and get 10% off!
The title says it all - so for those of us (unlucky enouch) to be running Linux, the VMWare Windows XP install does not seem to support the faster method of DirectX ... that much for it ...
== With enough Will Power, one could move mountains. With enough Brains, one would just leave them where they are ==
I believe Google is infringing on prior art on the whole "Earth" thing. They are attempting to rebrand it, push it as an original and then patent it away from the original creator - God.
God will soon be unable to continue providing his "competing" Earth service due to rigorous patent laws, and everyone will PERISH - All because Google has the legal power to take a page from MS's book and assert that it was their idea in the first place.
Please contact your local congress(wo)man today and let hir know of this nefarious plot.
www.olin.edu
is a Google-branded GPS system to tie into Google Earth. Then I could have a realtime You Are Here.
Google, in their holy crusade against Microsoft has launched their most powerful attack on the monopoly yet -- offering a Windows only tool. Google... What happened?
The zoom effects in quaility are next to none. This people are dangerous! People at Google: we are not worthy! we are not worthy! we are not worthy! we suck!!
- these are not the droids you are looking for -
I have been unable to find examples of 3D buildings - anyone else have luck?
My town is littered with them. In fact, I'm sitting in one right now. They should be pretty easy to spot; a good rule of thumb is that if something is tall enough to trip over, it's 3D.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Direct X Google Earth "no worky" with my VMware Windows XP Pro either. But I did not expect it too, either.
--ken
Bitcoin pyramid: Join here: http://www.bitcoinpyramid.com/r/1427 it's FREE!
Considering the pace at which Google is moving with it's new products, looks like future computers will be needing just a web-browser to do most of the daily work. Pity we need an OS to run a browser.
Wow,
What a great way to visualize approaches to airports you haven't been to before. Just go to the airport you want, tilt the view angle and line up on the runway and you've got a perfect perspective of what the surrounding environs look like. No more trying to blindly search for the airport as you go to a new one. You can research ahead of time and get all your landmarks down pat!
Hmmm...
somthing about Google and Earth in the same URL excites me.
Am no fek Buddhist, but this is enlightenment.
... as most of you are drooling over new features. google maps, google earth. is there any business cases that some small company actually benefits from these? how.
Does it run in Wine? Their web page mentions the use of OpenGL for rendering, which is obviously a good sign... anyone tried that?
I am very surprised the personalized search feature based on your search history hasn't been news on slashdot yet... I was nicely surprised with it this morning... maybe on slashdot tomorrow... making google's week complete!
That's all I've got to say. That app is AWESOME.
The guys at MapQuest have got to be feeling like total losers these days. It's hard to believe I once thought MapQuest was cool.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
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"
...well, it would have been, except I downloaded this thing and started playing with it.
It's seriously cool. Ran amazingly smoothly, too! Not something I'd want to run off a dialup, though.
It's the land of the brave, and the home of the free
Where the less you know, the better off you'll be.
Great products for free. Some of the best engineers/scientists in the world. Constant amazing releases and press... How many people are just giving up on their aspirations to innovate now, or are replacing their aspirations with "* work at google"?
/. it would seem the answer is no, that people are willing to let Google be the only software company.
Is there even a desire for Google competitors? Reading
I've been a Keyhole LT subscriber for a while now so I got to test Google Earth betas for a couple weeks now. It's pretty nice, but they actually removed one of my favorite features. In one of the betas there was the ablility to measure area by just drawing a polygon on the map with the measure tool, then it vanished! I really want that one back, it's great when looking for houses and such. For simple rectangular shapes it's not a big deal because you can still measure in 1 dimension and just do the math, but for complex shapes it's much harder now. ::Digitac
Word of warning, for those that are old enough to remember when programs used to ask by default where you wanted to install them:
:)
GoogleEarth installs in c:\program files. No option is given, unless you choose "custom" install.
Not a show-stopper, but I really wish developers hadn't moved to that model. I have multiple partitions for a reason!
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
So do you get to see any of Area 51?
if you try the Area 51 coordinates on
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
you just get a topo map!
-- Believe your Justice!
C'mon download download! Gooooooogle!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
No, they said a Macintosh version of Google Earth, not a PowerPC version. Just because Apple is changed to Intel chips doesn't mean that they can suddenly run Windows applications.
Just buy a cheap Windows machine and a KVM. Seriously.
My other first post is car post.
Denver
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
We'll see. Since it seems to be graphic card related, the Intel Macs might be more standard in that department and thus available for this service.
You just need higher volume to offset the cost. Something around infinity should do it.
The intel chip won't make a significant difference in porting.
If you run any machine with less than 512 megs of ram, i pity you
This makes me wonder if the US goverment would see this as a security risk as it gives such detailed info that terrorists could use against them. It wouldn't suprise me if this gets shut down for that reason.
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
Who else read this and thought Google had started launching space probes and satellites for free?
:)
They have to do something with the exhaust from all their server farms... pipe it all into a single tube, and make the worlds largest blow-dart gun that can launch into space
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
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 have 512 and an empty slot. Maximum possible, 3GB. And my motherboard's a couple of years old. No, this program won't run on a TRS-80. ;-)
"Is this Winkhorst a nova criminal?" "No just a technical sergeant wanted for interrogation."
Atlanta has them.
Also, after installing it, it seemed that 3D Buildings is turned off by default. Make sure that option is checked in the left-hand option pane.
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
I think it is less of a graphics card issue, and more of an issue that they bought the software from a company that was windows only, and wanted to bring the product to market sooner rather than later.
There are some pretty good satellite images available.
G .jpg - LG.jpg
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/area51/Area51-072503-L
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/area51/Area51-4M072503
You can compare them with google maps, it was posted yesterday.
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.
IF you type a search for Honk Kong you get nothing, but after a few minutes of figuring how to zoom down to the right place I found it clear as day. The problem here? I don't speak cantonees... and most people in HK do speak english. So why no hits for the search?
P.S. And yes this is a big deal, HK is not part of China no matter how much the land grabing Reds in Beijing want it to be. Give it a name and it has a voice, Redmond we know complies with censorship of the people in China but has Google gone down the same dark road?
Careful what you say around me.. I will assume you mean it.
OMG!
/me hugs Google. We loves it. It came to usssssssssss.
OMGWTF!!!
OMGWTFOMFG!!!!!!111one!!!
Really, I love this. Mmmmmmmhhh Google.
Global warming is a cube.
This is really cool, but I'll be really impressed when the whole thing updates in real-time à la Snowcrash. ;-)
The first thing that I did was to look up my boyhood home in Louisiana. I haven't seen it in twenty years. Tears came from my eyes as I looked down on the lake where my friends and I used to swim and fish, and I fell in the love for the first time.
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. -- Mark Twain
This is just another in a long list of great work that comes from google, which I will use and enjoy for a long time.
That's true to a certain extent. Light configurations can work just fine with below 512MB of RAM (however, the ones needed to a) play streaming video (and not just acceptably) in a browser plugin in Windows XP and b) not quit whatever else you're running while doing a) are not light configurations to me).
Should you consider that the "plus" version is not worth the 30 USD you shelled out for it three days ago, Google offers you a refund. The refund is pro-rated according to the number of months of the year you have been using your subscription.
Here
Remember, you heard it here first.
OS-G is going to be FREE (except for the extensions of course).
Heard any good sigs lately?
I think it goes without saying that I wish I could update TFA. When I wrote it at 1 AM, 13 hours before it hit /., Earth hadn't yet been uploaded to the web, so "launching" in the title and "available soon" in the article haven't been accurate for many hours. Also, I would have mentioned the enterprise versions of Earth, which can cost a butt-load of money for those interested.
...but doesn't this promote terrorism to a certain extent?
Since you posted this as a reply to the What about Linux? thread, it seems reasonable to assume that Google has already thought of this and they deduced that terrorists don't use Windows.
Here is Google's answer...
I really really hope that "promote" wasn't the verb you were looking for.
What useful information does this provide to terrorists that scouting out the area doesn't?
LOAD "SIG",8,1
You need to turn the 3d buildings layer on first. It's in the "Layers" panel.
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.
Strange things are afoot at the state of Missouri. Why would that state, and Indiana, require full coverage so soon?
These are some of the things molecules do...... given 4 billion years -Carl Sagan
People have been helping each other to make the most out of this software for years. To visit the most interesting landmarks and learn how to use Google Earth to its maximum potential, take a look a the official BBS.
...You will be assimilated.
So who's going to need whom in the near future? It will get to the point that no one will buy Windows if it won't support the Google Meta-Operating System.
"Is this Winkhorst a nova criminal?" "No just a technical sergeant wanted for interrogation."
3D Buildings are simple grey projections of major city buildings overlayed on the city map. They don't look great yet, but they are fun.
I found Vegas by accident and compiled this list from previous answers.
Las Vegas
New York
San Francisco
Boston
Cleveland
Denver
Atlanta
From Google:
Google Earth has 3D buildings listed in a number of major US cities including Boston, MA; Cleveland, OH; and Washington, D.C. to name a few. To view these:
1. Turn on the 3D building layer by selecting the check box in the dashboard.
2. Position the viewer within a reasonable viewing altitude over a major city such as San Francisco. The 3D buildings start to appear from an eye-elevation of 10-12,000 feet. Check the eye-elevation meter on the lower right of the 3D viewer to determine your current viewing height. The 3D buildings appear as light grey objects over the imagery of the city. As you zoom in, more details will appear until you can see the entire shape of a building.
3. Use the tilt and rotate tools to get the best view of the buildings.
So if Google wants, they can add the moon or the rest of the universe. I wonder what Google would charge to put a building on Mars on universe.google.com
Is this serious?
Holy crap The Beer Store is being given away for free?! QUICK, TO CANADA.
For more information, click here.
it has happened: Google has constructed a second Earth.
I hope to see you all at the launch.
No, I'm sure of it, you didn't. Read and try again. Continue practicing as much as you need, there is no time limit.
You may begin.
I don't think it is wise of the developers to use the default IE proxy settings! There's an enormous amount of data, and it is better and faster served directly from Google's server.
You seem determined to make it so.
This would make a kick ass game if someone would hack it to the tune of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego"
Tell that to Jack Bauer...
I have a licensed Crossover Office installation (Wine + a lot of hacks to try to smooth things over for end users). I tried installing Google Earth as an "unsupported app" under the cxoffice setup. With the operating system set to "Win XP", the installer completed fine, but the application failed to launch. The most illuminating error message I could squeeze out of it was:
err:module:import_dll No implementation for KERNEL32.dll.Module32NextW imported from L"C:\\Program Files\\Google\\Google Earth Plus\\base.dll", setting to 0xdeadbeef
err:module:import_dll No implementation for KERNEL32.dll.Module32FirstW imported from L"C:\\Program Files\\Google\\Google Earth Plus\\base.dll", setting to 0xdeadbeef
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"C:\\Program Files\\Google\\Google Earth Plus\\GoogleEarth.exe" failed, status c0000142
I gave up for now. I'll try this out when I get home and can boot into native windows - I'm all linux here at the office.
11*43+456^2
Google is smart; they're reserving their Linux and Mac versions for the $400 pay level, because they know you whiny idiots will pay for it.
I was a Keyhole subscriber for a little over a year before google bought them.
As nice of an improvement the Google Earth software is, overall the product has become worse since google bought it.
The overall resolution has been decreased from many covered areas and super high-res areas have been removed entirely.
You used to be able to clearly make out the exact shapes of cars in the SF Bay Area, now they are blurry colored blobs. In the super high res areas, you could pretty much identify the model of most cars and sometimes even make out individual people.
If you are a long time subscriber like me, google placates you with an option to login to the 'legacy' database.. but if you are new.. no dice.
Doesn't that seem strange? I really hope they reintegrate the higher res data, it is profoundly better.
I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt that when they increased their coverage area they had technical issues with the highest res data, but it's been awhile now and they havn't changed their stance of "Oh.. umm yea..login to legacy.." since the new primary database came out.. so I'm fairly worried.
...when you skipped the first part:
Google Earth is a broadband, 3D application that not all computers can run.
* Apple Macintosh computers are not supported at this time (but we are working on it).
* Windows-based desktop PCs older than 4 years old may not be able to run it.
* Windows-based notebook PCs older than 2 years old may not be able to run it.
It's the funniest thing I've read today. I like telling users: Your computer is too old! I'm amazed that the recommended configuration is the same as Doom III...
Get your Unix fortune now!
I can see my house from here!
All this data is freely available from other sources. If they wanted to plan something, this isn't helping them any more. Besides, people need to stop being paranoid.
And, for those of us who don't like to get ripped off by cab drivers (as a comedian on "Just for Laughs" did it), we can get the landmarks straight and talk about them :D
Foxed Design
Tempting though it is, I am going to
resist the temptation to install Windows
just to run this app.
If I want to look at things from the air,
I'll just have to get in my airplane and fly
around.
Bastards.
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 *
Was I the only one that thought a flight simulator + google Earth = hours and hours of fun?
There's a remarkably similar product in Neal Stephenson's amazing book, Snow Crash. Is he getting royalties?
Though Google themselves may not provide it.
How long will it be, really, before someone either reverse-engineers (or Google provides?) the queries and data that go back and forth? It seems pretty obvious that all of the data is kept server side, and the download for the Windows(tm) version of the application seems to only be about 10MB or so (so I'm guessing - and it IS only a guess - that there's not a lot of processing that the client side has to do).
QT has OpenGL classes in it, doesn't it? How long before there's a "KGoogleEarth" project?...
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
I remember that there was once such images available on the web, but I forgot the URL.
No. There never was. The technology doesn't exist to photograph at this detail at real time, for the whole USA, and stream it over the web. The nearest you get to 'real time' in satellite images are MODIS images you can get (and pipe into WorldWind), which photographs the entire earth over a period of about 3 days (but not to a very high level of detail)
Perhaps on his/her typing skills. At least the poster isn't operating a big rig or heavy machinery right now. No worries.
Actually we've carefully analyzed the parameters and for the typical MIRV'd 50KT soviet warhead to achieve a 50% probability of knocking out a Minuteman 3 ICBM inside a silo with a 3m thick reinforced concete lid, the nuclear detonation would have to occur within 300m, which is very difficult to do considering that the re-entry vehicle will have an air-speed in excess of 14,000 MPH. If they have airliners full if jet A fuel it's a whole different story.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
If you continue with your deductive logic, you could easily conclude that by supporting Linux you are supporting terrorists.
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.
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.
You are correct that this tool does not aid terrorists any more than the satellite imagery available from countless sources on the web but all of this information does make it easier to scout possible locations, that's the double-edged sword of the right to freedom of information
It's getting to the point where i'll cream my pants whenever I see a slashdot entry with "Google" in the title.. I just wonder: "Holy crap.. What have they perfected now?"
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
Ground Zero
The Forbidden City
The White House (censored!)
The Pyramids
Anyone having any luck with the crime statistics? I was kind of interested to see the crime stats in my area, but nothing's coming up when I click on the checkbox. (And I *know* there is crime around here.)
To everyone complaining that it's shitty of Google not to debut with a Linux version of Earth because they use Linux, shut the fuck up. Do you expect a discount from your ISP if they use Linux on their servers? Do you expect free tickets to movies that used Linux render farms for their special effects?
I bet most of you bitching don't even contribute to the body of open source software.
What the crap is up with Missouri? Except for a little chunk out of SE MO, every low-res picture is crazily vignetted. I mean you can see the border, mile-for-mile. Does the Missouri satellite have too long a lens hood or something?
The United States of America: We do what we must because we can.
So basically there is very little hope of seeing the highest res data reintegrated? That is a massive bummer, I most likely will not be renewing my subscription.
It seems many of the pictures are rather old so your house should be built a few years ago. For example, the palmtree island in dubay is missing.
A bummer these only seem to work in the US, despite them having already added a very detailed road network with names, road types, and all in many countries besides there.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
seeing as so many of you have started threads there is no main one to post this to, look at the screenshot. There IS A LINUX VERSION.
If you have nothing useful to say post as AC.
Ok, so usually I am a bit annoyed by the fact that everytime google sneezes someone writes an article about it.
On the other hand, I used this thing for about an hour and it was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen google do. This rocks.
HJ
something about Google offering free Earth launches to orbit... heh.
It's $20 a year, not $20 a month, $10 less than what the used to charge for the paid version.
I think i'll stay with the Google Maps for now thank you. These images are about as 3d (actually a little less it seems) than the ones in MSFT Flight Sims. I have only looked at the Boston area so far (but it is a Major US city that Google has been looking at putting a Campus in even) and it's just flat. Not even the 60 floor John Hancock tower or Fenway park are in 3d. It's just putting an image on it's side.
Now let me note that I am running it in Virtual PC as Windows Users obviously still get preference due to shear numbers alone and OS X gets shafted, but I don't think that would change the 3dness of it. Also it's slower than... well it is Virtual PC trying to do 3d so i'll forgive that part.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Wow, that's a bit extreme. From the keyhole site: Apple Macintosh computers are not supported at this time (but we are working on it). You can at least give them credit for that...
"OK, tell that to the families of more than 3000 people who died on 9/11"
Gladly. They've got more chance of being eaten by a shark than killed by a terrorist.
"People need to be more alert"
And report on their neighbors for being subversives. What a wonderful society we'd have then!
"I think people who aren't worried about it are pretty naive."
I think people who are more worried about terrorism than they are about driving to work don't have very good threat assessment skills.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
May Google add teletransportation within?
..look at the download page - instead of a normal download link, they use a form action - tsk tsk.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
But I, very unwillingly, take it all back and claim the opposite.
I used to love Map Quest as one of the few originally useful websites. Someone whined about the poor 3D graphics here, but really... It's not about making it look like Doom 3, but about compiling massive amounts of geographical data covering the whole goddamn planet.
I can see the roof of my house in Stockholm, Sweden. I can see the house of my friend in Absecon, NJ. I can see cars in the streets. I actually had to stick my head out my window and check that my backyard really looks the way it does in the application. It does of course.
This is about building a scalable infrastructure, that you can then stuff with information about not only streets and hotels, but all kinds of things. As image resolution improves and updates become more frequent, and people stuff more and more information about places in it, this will be a real step toward realizing Google's ultimate vision--to create an interface to all human knowledge (originally inspired by the ship computer on the USS Enterprise).
Google earth is fantastic. It worked very well for me with vmware workstation 5.0 under linux. I had to select OpenGL at the startup of liveearth. When selecting Divx, liveearth will lock up terribly under vmware and you need to do remove the program and and reinstall to get rid of the broken cache. Here is a screenshotfrom the building I work in.
Here is how to determine the accuracy of Google Earth's measure tool (goto Tool menu, select Measure).
It has been measured, in 1958, that Harvard Bridge is 364.4 Smoots plus one ear. I tried, and yes, it was about 364.4 smoots according to Google Earth.
Now, when Google decides to combine the two, with links to the Google personalized homepage news... will this become the new CNN? Fire in your home state? Just load up Google Earth, search news inside your state, double click fire, go to location, and click on icon to bring up list of pre-recorded and currently streaming video of the site. (And maybe with Google's new payment system, make small micropayments to whoever is doing the video/audio that you are watching.)
Next big thing in Google Adsense... amature video journalism.
I8-D
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.
Damn... My whole city is covered with clouds... How come we have better coverage of satellite pictures from mars than earth???
Finally I can see my girl friend.
If you are more worried about driving than terrorism you have no right to lecture anyone about "threat assessment skills". Or am I forgetting about all those bands of middle eastern car journeys plotting the downfall of the western world?
I guess a 2D building would be called a flat!
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Anyone else got a real photo and a Google Earth image to compare side by side?
They should be pretty easy to spot; a good rule of thumb is that if something is tall enough to trip over, it's 3D.
Guess that leaves out my home state of Florida.
Guess that leaves out my home state of Florida.
Okay, trip over or fall into. Happy now, Captain Pedantic?
I started to make a crack about the lack of anything higher than a shadow being a sure indicator that you're in Kansas, but then I figured perhaps Ohio would be more appropriate, and then thought about Oklahoma, and finally realized that the eastern half of North Carolina in which I currently reside is about as flat as those places so I just dropped it.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
I downloaded the google earth installer, but it's actually the google earth plus version. Where is the free version?
You have conveniently forgotten the 1993 World Trade Center attack,
I was actually referring to a large scale attack such as 9/11, but didn't spell that out, so fair enough, I'll give you that. It still gives you a total of around 3000 people dead from Islamic terrorist activities on US soil.
That is, of course, 3000 too many, and of course steps should be taken to prevent it happening again. But it is simply not the case that events like this are happening on a regular basis.
People are occasionally mauled by tigers - yes, even in the US, probably in zoos - but that doesn't mean we all need to carry around tiger repelling spray all the time. Nor, to take the other extreme, does that mean we should dive into a tiger's den. A bit of common sense is all it takes.
I'm all for common sense, and by all means, make air travel more secure. But that's not what we've seen since 9/11. What we've seen is much posturing, flag waving, jingoistic nonsense like "freedom fries", people having their car keys and other harmless items taken off them when boarding planes, people being detained without trial in Guantanamo Bay. The latest thing is yet another attempt to make burning the American flag a crime.
If that should pass, we will now have officially reached the point where the image of the flag is more important than the freedom it embodies (the freedom, for example, to dissent by burning it)
Let me get this straight, you are equating road traffic deaths to those killed, sorry, murdered by terrorists flying planes into buildings and the ground? Your values are so unbelievably out of whack that you may just be beyond help. Traffic deaths are tragic and I understand that they cause a lot of pain for the families of their victims but just because there are more that makes them more tragic? Sheesh.
My values are such that I find them exactly AS tragic in terms of loss. Are you saying that to you, the lives of people murdered by terrorists are more important, and more of a loss than those who die in accidents? Perhaps they're somewhat less dead? Or maybe you'd like to tell their familes that they don't matter as much.
To me, all lives are of equal value. Every life lost is a tragic and unbearable loss.
And to put it very bluntly, yes. To me, the loss of 40,000 lives IS worse than the loss of 3000 lives. Exactly 13.333 times worse.
It is, of course, a terrible and tragic thing whenever one person is driven to kill another, and I am firmly of the belief that in an ideal world that would never occur. However, I don't see that there is a case to be made that a person's death is more tragic for having been the result of terrorist action than natural disaster or road accident.
people died [in the Indian Ccean tsunami] but it was ENTIRELY unavoidable.
That's easy enough. "Oh well. Couldn't have been helped. Never mind."
I can't help but wonder if you'd dismiss it so easily if it had occurred along the Cascadia subduction zone of the Pacific Northwest, thereby affecting the USA instead?
Regardless, a huge number of those deaths were preventable. With a small investment in communication, seismology equipment, and education, a very significant number of those people would still be alive today.
The only major difference, apart from an order of magnitude in loss of life, is that 9/11 was an act of deliberate murder carried out by one set of people against another. It is also worth noting that, whatever your personal view of the event, the people who carried it out believed that they were doing something good and just. (just for the record, btw, I find it neither good nor just, but evil and disgusting.)
As for my choice of words that it 9/11 no big deal in the overall scale of things, I chose those words deliberately. Yes, it is a terribly crude thing to say, and I am fully aware of that. As I said earlier every single life lost is a tragedy, but 3000 deaths are just a tiny drop in the ocean of annual lives lost. Even if you only count delib
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
At least World Wind is open source, so there's a much greater hope for a Linux port.
Whoops.. quick amendment to the above.
I quoted parent with:
people died [in the Indian Ccean tsunami] but it was ENTIRELY unavoidable.
My intention was to put into context what I was referring to, but I've just realised it makes the parent come across as sounding rather more flippant than in the original context. That line should instead read:
"[the Indian Ocean tsunami] was ENTIRELY unavoidable"
Now if only Slashdot had an "edit post" button. Oh well.
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
Earth: Check
Swords: Check
Business card that says I am an uber-leet h4x0r: check
now all I need is an obnoxious british butler AI Construct, and a deliverator, and I can finally fulfil my goals of becoming Hiro Protagonist..
I'm talking about the number of people killed in automobiles vs. the number of people killed by terrorists. I'll leave the numbers to you.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Click on the following maps.google.com link and then click the zoom one extra time for maximum zoom to view from around 2,200 feet above:0 51&spn=0.005375,0.007918&t=k&hl=en
...then compare it to Google Earth zoomed to around 500 feet above:
( 500%20ft%20above).jpg
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-23.547585,-46.665
http://www.radojevic.com/-23.547585,-46.665051%20
g
I didn't read the whole thread. So shoot me.
I just ran the program, and MAN, I am blown away! That is some really awesome work.
Someone should give them Google programmers a cookie. They are writing some tremendous stuff!
My site
My films
Has anyone noticed the differences between google maps and google earth. for instance, when looking at the place where my office is in tokyo, google maps shows the office tower it is in, while google earth shows a picture of the area before the tower was built. funny, me thinks cheers Majello
This opinion is mine, you can't have it.
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!
Cities. Only in big cities. ...
Check out LA or Seattle or New York or
you get the idea.
Heard any good sigs lately?
Actually, you also need a computer, a power outlet, and an Internet connection, none of which usuallly are free. But there is no cost for using this particular software.
Or maybe because google got those photo from sat imaging company, who receives most of their request from intelligence agencies, who mostly wants to see important military assets, and said imaging company just give google most of the stuff they have, a large portion of which are military related?
In US, you can easily buy enough major firearms to wipe out your neighbourhood but a few little fireworks are banned.
This just proves that we were justified for attacking Iraq; after all, President Bush made it clear that you're either with us or with the terrorists. Saddam made his loyalties known, and he paid the price. Then again-in a liberal's mindset-if Michael Moore disagrees with it, it must be a lie.
I'd love to see you spout this bull to a company of Marines or airborne soldiers. Your words give aid and comfort to our enemies, and do nothing but attempt to bring discouragement to the brave men and women sacrificing themselves to ensure that those towel-headed nutjobs never strike us again.
Shame on you.
Google Earth has a web browser integrated in it. And it uses IE, not Firefox. To access it, just search for a business and click on a link in the pop-up.
Well, I really shouldn't feed the trolls - or the idiots. But here goes anyway
This just proves that we were justified for attacking Iraq; after all, President Bush made it clear that you're either with us or with the terrorists. Saddam made his loyalties known, and he paid the price. Then again-in a liberal's mindset-if Michael Moore disagrees with it, it must be a lie.
Ah yes. And if Bush says it it must be true.
FWIW, I think Michael Moore is a twat with very little of any worth to say - and anything that he does say is so wrapped up in hype and drama that it's lost anyway.
You appear to be alluding to the fact that Saddam Hussein had some kind of alleigance or connection with Al Queda when you say he "made his loyalties known". If you are in possession of such information I suggest you deliver it to George Bush or Tony Blair immediately, because they really should be informed of things like that.
It must be so easy to live in a world where everything is black or white. You're either a good god-fearing middle class freedom-fries eating white American Christian, or you're one of them there Islamic commie terr'ist mutants - oh, I'm sorry.. I believe the correct technical term is "towel-headed nutjobs"
I'd love to see you spout this bull to a company of Marines or airborne soldiers.
Funny you should say that, because I have. Unlike, I suspect, you, I actually know somebody who served in Iraq, having spent six months there with the Scottish Black Watch regiment last year. His views on the matter are considerably more extreme than mine, and he's rather bitter about having risked his life and seen friends killed and injured for what he terms "a completely bullshit war". But then, he's probably an Islamic double agent or something.
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
Google have closed their downloads for Earth.
See http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4659.html for mirrors.
Not sure which version is the latest, but MajorGeeks have "Google Earth 3.0.0336 Beta"
So what?
The images are >1yr old, who cares what ships were at anchor last year?
It's not like you can't drive up to the bases and have a look with your own eyes anyway.
Nah, he's using a linux seat that could have gone to a terrorist.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
and where did you think that petrol to run your car comes from?
Where do terrorists come from?
I think there is a terrorist plot here somewhere???
--
Roll of tin foil £1.50
1 Week of psychiatric help £150
Keeping the neighbours dog from reading your mind - priceless!
"The weirdest thing about a mind, is that every answer that you find, is the basis of a brand new cliche" -
Actually there exists (has existed for some years even) alternatives to Google Earth that also can be used by Mac and Linux users. Try the Virtual Globe at: http://globe.sintef.no/ (Java required). As it doesn't have the money for the hi-detail data Google can buy, it only uses the data NASA aand USGS gives avay for free. And in many cases 15m horizontal resolution Landsat images and 100m SRTM elevations are sufficient.