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Google Earth v4 Released - Linux Support at Last
chrisd writes "We're very happy to announce that the a new version of Google Earth has been released. It features 3D textured buildings, some neat UI updates, better internationalization and, with this release, a native Linux version is available for download as well. The Google Earth team (with the help of Ryan Gordon) worked very hard to make this possible. Please see the Earth support site and check out the BBS for more information."
Now for China...
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
For finally making a Linux version. Downloading it right now...
What, I'm supposed to trust Google's binary?
This reminds me of the old Microsoft Flight & Train Simulators ... but this is much cooler :-)
Looking for secret nuclear plants in Iran?
-DBS
Sigs suck!
Yay for Google, good job being not evil :D
Obligatory blog plug: http://www.caseybanner.ca/
$ googleearth
Segmentation fault
$
Also today - Google's free version of Sketchup for the Mac is available: Download here
More info on Sketchup - it's basically a super-intuitive CAD program for quickly getting 3D ideas down on paper.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Please see the Earth support site
Well, it finally happened... Google took over. But it's one thing to take the planet over, but quite another to provide support for it too. Man, I'd hate to be be at the other end of the support line... wonder if you need to run the standard Google employment gauntlet to be first-tier support?
You don't use science to show that you're right, you use science to become right.
To me, the menu looks like the linuxified windows program picasa, again via wine than really native.
(Mod company) +1 Not Evil
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
"Thanks so much Google" - for finally making a Linux version .... of anything.
Did anyone follow the link over there to Google SketchUp? I am amazed that this program hasn't gotten any publicity. Some details from the site:
"SketchUp is a simple but powerful tool for quickly and easily creating, viewing and modifying your 3D ideas.
* Click on a shape and push or pull it to create your desired 3D geometry.
* Experiment with color and texture directly on your model.
* Real-time shadow casting lets you see exactly where the sun falls as you model.
* Select from thousands of pre-drawn components to save time drawing.
And once you've built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies. Google SketchUp is free for personal use. No registration is required."
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Its not that I don't trust google, but I run Gentoo and don't have many binaries install at all. This might become more common in the future, so how should I protect myself from malicious binaries?
IF you go to this WindWindCentral page, you'll learn that Google Earth's open source competitor is readying Linux and Mac versions of NASA World Wind. You can learn a lot about WW here and a lot about GE here.
"NASA is currently making plans for World Wind 1.5. This version will be available for multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux and the Macintosh."
Animoog.org
If you never go outside, it can show you what the world looks like.
For the rest of us, take a GPS datalogger when boating, biking, driving, etc. Then import the data into Google Earth to have a satellite image with your trek pre-drawn on it.
...about no publicity?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Well ...
I had a first date planned with someone (this was about 349 days ago, before she became my girlfriend, then fiance); I was supposed to go to an area of town I've not often frequented; worse, the directions were confusing (lots of cloverleaf intersections and the like).
I put it into Google Earth, had it show me the directions AND what the streets actually look like, and this really helped me understand the directions. Does that count?
If anyone knows of a good source for high quality buildings & overlays, I am all ears. These features will be great if someone else wants to do all the work.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I'm trying not to troll here but I don't really "get" the point of Google Earth. I understand that it's cool to look around cities and famous places but is that it? Am I missing something?
Yes.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
Google Lists the following tested+working distributions:
Ubuntu 5.10
Suse 10.1
Fedora Core 5
Linspire 5.1
Gentoo 2006.0
Debian 3.1
Red Hat 9
I just tested it and it works but sporadically crashes under RHEL3 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3). The crash said that it would be sending details to google regarding the crash, but I didn't see any notice about it when I next started googleearth.
I'm trying not to troll here but I don't really "get" the point of Google Earth. I understand that it's cool to look around cities and famous places but is that it? Am I missing something?
I feel a little bad for you. Don't you experience any sort of wonder and amazement that you can look at just about any point on the planet, all from the comfort of your own chair? I mean, even if it wasn't useful for getting maps, creating driving routes, and all that, isn't it still an amazing achievement to you? GoogleEarth is a significant cultural and technological achievement.
And how fitting that Google, of all companies, has provided this free of charge to everyone on Earth.
The fact that GoogleEarth exists at all is the point.
This is no offense to you, personally, but how sad is it that, in our modern era, we can create stunning accomplishments that overshadow any and all accomplishments in the entirety of human history and so many of us still have the lack of appreciation to say "That's it?".
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
When run "sudo GoogleEarth . . . " it creates a directory in /usr/local/google-earth. That directory is chock full of .so files, not .DLL files. Also Icculus (Ryan Gordon) is "not a big fan of wine". Ryan and most of the folks who hang their hats at icculus.org are former employees or had connections to Loki Software, a company that made NATIVE PORTS of games.
One other chap who worked at Loki then moved on to Epic Software and brought us NATIVE ports of UT2003 and UT2004.
It's definitely native.
Thanks to Gordon and I hope you had fun working with the folks at Google.
This is indeed a great day, google earth was the only app I ever used on my laptop under Windows.
Yeah, it's not perfect yet, read the forums, play around with it, tweek it and it'll go.
I can tell you that the geologists & engineers in many oil & gas companies find google earth to be a very handy & time-saving tool.
Commercial Realestate
Whether 42 is the correct answer? The dolphins were too busy singing about all the fish they ate to say either way. I do know that they bought a large block of Google stock before they left. :P
Yes, you're missing something. But a lot of people are, believe me ;-)
There are 4 versions of Google Earth. Most people know about the free version only. The other Google Earth versions gives you way more features, including GIS-like features.
Animoog.org
So what you're saying is, "Google Earth helped a geek get laid"?
Sounds like the beginnings of a marketing campaign, if I ever heard one...
Reality has a liberal bias
Think of the kids! It's an intersting and fun way to learn about the world.
Also, video producers have already started using apps like this in their films... "Loose Change: Second Edition", anyone?
The glass is neither half full nor half empty. It is dirty and I don't do dishes!
What about bsd and osx support? any chance?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
They wanted to see what their neighbors were doing, or see where their kids were, etc. Nevermind the sunbathers behind the super high fence.
But they still liked the product even if they didn't have those features. I imagine it would be very popular if they could get the features they thought they had.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Furthermore, I think that many people, being visual learners as they are, respond to techy stuff like "google maps" when there's big, 3d, free visual interfaces attached to it. Personally, I like to use it to look up local businesses, find restaraunts, etc.
It is really helping me out right now. I'm having to move far away to a place I've never been. Google Earth lets me view the area from space, get a feel for neighborhoods, distances, etc. It can plot routes between potential houses for rent/purchase and schools, businesses, etc. For relocating to an unfamiliar place, it's quite handy. Sure, much (most? all?) of the same stuff can be done through maps.google.com, but it's much speedier using the thick client.
Look around Esfahan.
Wow... the percentage of my country covered by the highres aerial photos has gone up massivly. This *really* adds to the usefulness of it. -Qyiet
Oh, sure, you can run Linux on this Earth... but just imagine a Beowulf cluster of them!
I love how you can watch the glaciers melt and fall into the sea in 3D!!! The splashes are so much better. And with my whooshing sound effects, my daughter can enjoy them before they are gone. Thanks Google!!!
7h3$3 4r3n'7 7h3 Ðr01Ð$ ¥0 4r3 £00|{1n9 f0r. M0v3 4£0n9. --OB1
Just tried it with Fedora Core 5 (with ATI radeon drivers). Installed with no issues, works fine and works fast. I'm impressed! Thanks Google.
(note - I don't think it's using Wine... couldn't see any Wine related stuff in the process list...)
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
I guess I always imagined that oil companies had their own kick-ass GIS systems that would put consumer stuff like Google Earth to shame. Or maybe they do, but it's too much trouble to "fly around".
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
I get that part of it but I do that with just Google Maps instantly anywhere on the Internet. I guess I don't see what you gain from installing Earth versus just using Google Maps online.
I think all of this stuff is cool but I don't think it overshadows any and all accomplishments in our history (and I'm sure that's not what you really meant).
Looks like I wasn't the only person to catch the season premiere of Deadwood last night...
Google Earth is one of my favorite programs. I just got a detailed overlay of my university campus that i'm starting out this summer so now i know where to go easily.
Thank you Google! Now my users will be happy, some have complained about google earth not being avaliable on the desktops of our linux terminal server. This really makes my day. :D
HTTP/1.1 400
He only said she was his fiance, not that he got laid.
Big difference, especially where geeks are concerned.
Double especially when they use Google Earth instead of maps.google.com.
Do you think he can figure out what hole his adapter goes into?
The opposite of progress is congress
I've developed a much better sense of local* geography "flying" around with Google Earth. It's one thing to try to associate views from different locations with points on maps. It's another thing to step back, get some perspective, and see a mix of "real" visuals (the aerial/satllite photography) and maps so that you can say, unequivacably, "OK, those are the mountains I can see from over here, and that range of hills up there is actually the same range of hills over there..." etc.
Sure, it'd be even better to charter an airplane to fly around, but most of us don't have that much pocket change -- and this lets me check out any region I want (assuming sufficient coverage), not just places near where I am.
*By "local" I mean southern California, which is pretty damn big.
Linux runs GOOGLE EARTH!
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
I think you mean post-drawn. If it were pre-drawn, you'd have to download the track data before you went on your hike.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Follow up: Of course there's a "pro" version of GE ... forgot about that.
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Ok, so now we've got Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06 (among other excellent distros), FireFox, Thunderbird, and now Picasa and Google Earth. In the foreseeable future we'll have an OpenOffice suite that runs a little faster and we'll have a legitimate iTunes competitor, Songbird.
:-)
Things are looking up for the Linux desktop, and for best-in-class software that runs on it. It's an exciting time to be a Linux fan, no?
Google Earth has a number of advantages over Google Maps:
* Because it's a native app rather than Web 2.0, it's snappier.
* There's an interface for making lists of points. For example, it's easy to create "this is my house" and "this is my office" places. That makes getting directions more convenient.
* Navigating in cities, the ability to see the buildings in 3D and get a ground-level perspective can be really useful in driving. It can be hard to figure out exactly what some directions mean just from the description.
* Printing directions is more effective, because it's not limited to the 72DPI resolution you get on a screen. (It still doesn't do as good a job as I'd like; I'm hoping version 4 does better.)
Those are things you actually want, in addition to the gee-whiz stuff. By all means continue to use Google Maps if you don't want to bother downloading something. But Google Earth isn't just fancy-but-irrelevant features.
Finally! we got through :)
Well it seemed funny to me anyways.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
It works well installed by a user in Debain AMD64 sarge, had to install it under 32 bit chroot, but will run in both 32 and 64 bit sides after unpack. It seems to want to use software gl, not accelerated graphics with my properly installed fglrx module (ATI driver) but thats ok, its plenty fast as is for my needs.
Nice going google.
actually from what I've been told by a geologist, they now use google earth most of the time and use there special software only to fill in some in some area where GEarth is lacking. I think the biggest thing is someof the data that record is required to be in a specific software.
=1000101
Chris
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
When I first tried it, I blew it up to 1600x1200 and it wasn't happy. When I get it down to about 850x600, everything works great, no blinkies or uglies. This is with my (ahem) work PC with the EXTREME Intel graphics.
So, I can't go to 1600x1200, I could even be stuck at 800x600 until the next stable comes out. I'll cope, it's a mighty effort made and I appreciate the heck out of it.
Google maps is amazing in its form and provides a very quick overview of a location, it amazes me that we can tile and deliver the world in bite size chunks for your use.
However maps fails when you want to use the 3d processing and cache abilities of your live system.
In google earth, tilting and rotating the world to your perspective really helps with your orientation, inserting buildings and landscape features puts you into the world all without needing to zoom out meaning you can easily see yourself walking or driving a journey. You can follow the path you need to take and mvoe around much more fluidly than in map.
Its a full 3d MMORG simply lacking in NPCs and avatars, maps is the same game but its a 2d scroller.
I also think the grand parent is wrong in his stunning accomplishments assessment, its just a refinement on an age old art of cartography mashed up (very hip) with a game engine.
One other thing, the local application versions have a home because google knows the internet isn't everything - yet.
In car nav systems don't connect the whole time and rely on data from cd data or drive space with inputs from GPS units so having an internet only version would rule them out of this very lucrative market.
Managing your graphics is something typically done offline, the internet is quick, but its just not quite there yet.
liqbase
Try being able to plan a trip to an aviation museum and use Google Earth to see where the hotels are so you can find one that will give you a great view of the approach path of incoming aircraft, and click on the one you want and be transported right to its website to look up room rates and make a reservation if you wish.
Just looking up addresses and getting distance info from a "find near here" site will tell you how far you have to drive, but knowing what you'll get, exactly, ahead of time, is only something that a real map can give you.
I did make the reservation, and I'm looking forward to the trip. It will be interesting to see if I can somehow upload the address easily via my Powerbook to my Garmin Streetpilot i5 so I can easily navigate there.
i am a soviet space shuttle
There is more to the world we live in than "cities and famous places". I can spend hours and hours on Google Earth, just looking at mountains in the Rockies or Andes for example. The physical world interests me, landforms, geology, physical geography in general. To me, Google Earth is one of the most significant pieces of educational software ever released on any format. Someone in Ohio or Oostende can gain an appreciation of the landforms of Papua New Guinea, fly through the Grand Canyon or explore the Antarctic Peninsula without ever leaving their desks, things they will probably never get a chance to do in real life.
The question you ask is analogous to asking "what's the point of any form of learning that doesn't further our everyday lives?".
Answer: "Some people find it interesting." If software formats and web 2.0 are more interesting to you than the High Himalayas, then that's your bag (...), but you have to appreciate that other's tastes and interests vary.
Understood - an earlier poster in the thread pointed out the typographical inconsistencies.
Without knowing the details of your system, I cannot say what you're problem is, but you appear to be doing something wrong. It was a very simple install on my P4 FC4 system, and works exactly as it should
Good to know. Perhaps I'll try again, although given the simplicity of the process it's hard to say what went wrong.
And thanks to the parent poster for playing. Please let us know when the free map toy that you create works better.
Sorry if you thought I sounded sarcastic, or if my accurate reporting of my experiences hurt your feelings in some way. That wasn't my intent. I do appreciate Google's efforts and am sincere in hoping that it works better next time.
Maybe this is why it is beta, but it doesn't work well at all.
Graphics for me only work with one combination of settings and the map trails, sometimes cuts out, and flickers to the extreme. Yes I have OpenGL set up and working with hardware acceleration, and other programs work fine. Go figure... Good with static images though, but you can use google maps for that just as well.
Thanks for the linux version but it can definitely be better
"Google Earth: Helping people get Laid"
Yeah, I'd say that counts.
~The TwoTailedFox posts again....
Perhaps I'm just cynical, but isn't this thing just a game? What is the purpose, exactly? OK, neat, I can map the places I've been in the world and do a flyover. Wow. Are there supposed to be any real purpose for Google Earth? Please enlighten me!
sjeesh, leave a hint about Linux support and the Linux zealots stamp it into the ground. "Oh doesn't look nice", "Where is the source", "It doesn't run on my really really exotic Linux distribution", "How can I trust a binary distribution".
Basically people, "beep beeeeep" and get a life. You guys grab any opportunity to tell the world you are "cool" because you use Linux but all you do is complain while playing Windows games in a dark corner when nobody is looking and if you don't like Google Earth....
DON'T BLOODY USE IT!
Yeah, instead of it being grey, it's brown...
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Google produced as part of their competitive strategy/because so many people asked for it, and the original poster is doing them a favour by trying and commenting on it (though one can always try harder to be constructive, it does warn some people that the release doesn't work that well).
I get a little sick of people saying "Take the half working gesture and be happy about it," as if there weren't any point to it in the first place.
Im very glad to see Google's continuing development into Linux. Linux has a mass of problems right now - the biggest being the same that saw the downfall of Unix, multiple competing "distributions." Google are adding weight behind a very versitile platform. I only doubt their motives - it cant be too long now before Google release their own dekstop brand name. Google - love them or hate them? Im not sure, but I can at least applaude some of their work.
>/dev/null 2>&1
Why does the Google Pack EULA ask me to agree not to do something that's physically impossible?
From the Google Pack EULA:
Who in this universe has an infinite number of computers, or would install a piece of software an infinite number of times? Why don't also they require me to agree not to perform an infinite number of other impossible tasks? Why are so concerned about preventing people with infinite numbers of computers and patience installing their software?
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
It doesn't, however, run on a 64bit AMD kernel. This comes as no suprise to me, as the manufacturers of 64bit laptops don't even provide a 64bit OS nor 64bit driver CD.
As long as I have Google Local... that's all the usefullness I really need.
On my linux box, the fonts are extremely small. Is there anyway to change the font? It seems to use qt, I tried to change qt fonts, but it didn't help.
This thing is even more amazing. We use it on our smartboard, and the onscreen controller is wonderful. Much easier to do an impressive fullscreen.
I've seen many false starts at 3d controllers - and this isn't necessarily a controller for all 3d worlds, but the implementation came out of nowhere and is highly effective and easy to use after you see it work once.
Sketchup is wonderful - we just got the interface for a research project we've been trying to engineer for about 6 months...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Just looked at the World Wind Mt. St. Helens. It is quite obvious from this image that Washington State has done a timeslip and fallen back four billion years.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Ah! I know what it is. If you take Hactor's bomb which links all suns in the Universe together in hyperspace and link that to Earth, then use an infinite improbability drive so that Earth passes through every point in the Universe simultaneously, you would be able to create an infinite number of overlapped virtual computers.
It makes sense to ban installing Earth on Earth, as this would cause serious problems.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I also noticed that the V4 Beta is now a Universal Binary. Not that that helps much with a G4 iMac, but nevertheless. Sketchup is still a PPC app, but runs well on a macintel.
V4 is also a 27MB download vs. 11MB for V3. Lots of times there is extra debug information in Beta products, but I'm not sure what the exact cause is here (except for the universal binaries, of course!)
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Perhaps some Linux users want software that installs and just works, without having to figure out crap about compiling versions, missing libraries, etc. Joe Sixpack don't care for Stallmanism, he just wants his software to work. Hence, believe it or not, there is a market for Linspire's "Click N Run" service, no matter how abhorent the concept is to some. SuSE Linux for years included software that was proprietary and closed sourced on their production CDs. People still used SuSE. If people want to follow Stallmanism anally, then they have the freedom to choose not to download and install the Google Earth software.
After hurricane Katrina, rescue workers used Google Earth to navigate while looking for survivors, since they couldn't very well go by road signs.
Hi all,
/usr/local/google-earth /usr/local/bin, but does not say which command (googleearth) /etc/X11/xorg.conf
- This seems to be a binary package only, which uses a few common libraries beneath it
- Installs without a hitch on my system, defaults to
- Runs very smooth in Ubuntu 6.06 AMD 64 bit with nvidia driver, but it seems to need root permissions to start (installed with sudo on the 'binary' installer)
- No real desktop integration yet (at least with Gnome)
- Asks to install symlink in
- Probably not a good idea to run with nv driver in X, chech your
- Comes with nice Icon that works in Gnome in root of installation folder
Oh, I got a rather new 3GHz AMD 64/1 Gig, budget (fanless) videocard and 6 Mbit download. Not top of the bill, but quite nice anyway, your experiences may differ.
Unfortunately, it does not seem to be open source. A bit of a shame, the real work is in the infrastructure and obtaining the maps anyway.
Now, before the birkenstock idealogue choir chimes in with all the goddam web sites I'm supposed to visit to figure out how to get this thing working under linux, let me just say this: Fuck that; I'm booting up my Mac and playing with the new Earth there. Life is too short for me to dick around trying to cajole yet another linux app into working with my particular kernel and my particular font installation, etc, etc, etc... And you can call me all the names you want, but the fact of the matter is that I'm on the high end of patience and ability with computers (relative to the average guy, though probably not here) and I just don't give a shit enough to spend another second trying to get the linux version of Earth working or figure out the correct way to install it on my system. My point is simply that if a guy getting a PhD in EECS feels this way, you can bet the vast majority of the computer users in the world do, too.
Try planning a road trip with (printable) driving direction (round trip). Sure Mapquest or Yahoo maps can do this too, but with them you can't double click on each waypoint and "fly" there. Depending on where you are traveling the photos are so detailed you can see what lane you need to be in to make your exit.
LIBTIFF, Version 3.7.3
From CVE-2006-2193:While I doubt Google Earth will be calling this function, this goes to show the danger that users place themselves in when they run software that takes it upon itself to bundle together the libraries that it depends on.
Now that I come to think of it, there's no point in getting quick directions either, because we're all gonna die in the end anyway...
Yes it's native. Google Earth was originally coded using the QT(opia) library so no WINE stuff was needed.
I've installed it and it runs amazingly smooth and looks great.
"I filter at +6, and have yet to miss out on an important comment." (#822545)
Runs smoothly on my system (3400+) with a GeForce 6800GT.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
I've used Google Earth since it was version 1 by Keyhole and only worked on nVidia cards... and you had to pay for it. It's a cool piece of software, but of course version 4 wassn't actually released, it's a beta.
Knowing Google, however, version 3 probably never left beta.
In fact, is anything Google makes besides the search engine NOT beta? Google Groups has been beta since what, 2001? Their use of the word has completely lost any meaning, other than the obvious lawyerese intent of absolving them of any responsibility in case the stuff doesn't work. Like anyone ever takes that responsibility anyway (Microsoft?).
Still, it's cool software.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
What I'm interested in -- how hard was it to port this over to Linux? What about the DirectX->OpenGL transition? How was this done? How much of the source code could be reused? Is there a common code base at all, and if so, will future Windows/Mac/Linux versions of Google Earth be developed (and released) based on that from now on? And how hard would it be to provide binaries for non-x86 Linux, and/or other Unixes?
Any non-classified information on those things? :-)
Gentoo 2004.3 profile, kernel 2.6.12.5, NVIDIA driver 8178, ancient Geforce2 MX 400 card, XP1800 system. But this "Google Earth" works quite nicely, and without incident so far. WOW.
I use it for location research for movies. For example, trying to find a cemetery to film in, I can instantly see how big it is and whether it is surrounded by roads with heavy traffic.
I'm not wrong. You haven't thought about it hard enough.
I installed it hoping to see some nice building textures but couldn't figure out how to see them. Simply turning on the 3d buildings layer didn't do it; I still see flat grey boxes. Anyone know how to get them? Do I have to download the textures separately?
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
OK, first things first. I am serving in the Army as an enlisted Military Policeman. Currently stationed at Fort Hood in the 1st Cavalry Division, I came back from a 1 year tour in Iraq in early/mid 2005. In Baghdad the military is using a "new" tool (that DARPA has been working on for a number of years) that easily allows collaborative efforts and battle tracking. (I just googled for it, and the name is out in the open with a nice description of it on defense-update.com ... so it _appears_ that I am not "talking out of school" here.)
Anyway, last year around April/May the Cav returns back to the states, we get a little down time, turn most of our trucks and tanks to be "Reset" (rebuilt/refurbished/updated) ... and catch a nice little breather when Katrina hits. The 82nd Airborne gets to New Orleans first (after the National Guard and reserves) and then the Cav.
Being an enlisted Military Policeman gave me a unique perspective to what was going on... and more importantly what was NOT going on. When I worked in Baghdad my job was to coordinate efforts between the Coalition Forces and the Iraqi Police. We tracked what the Iraqi Police were seeing on the Streets and what the military was seeing on the streets and tried to keep everybody on the same page.
Low and behold when I get to New Orleans I discover that I have the PERFECT skill set for this disaster. Military and Law Enforcement experience, VERY knowledgeable on how to push and pull information to and from everybody who needs it, dealing with ALL flavors of law enforcement and coordinating efforts on the fly.
One problem. I don't have a tool to put the coordination together. However, most places (hospitals, Police Stations, FBI, DEA, NYFD, Customs, and the FEMA coordination centers) all have Internet access. Guess what. We have the perfect tool... Google Earth.
Google had recently worked there ASSES off putting current and updated flood information into Google Earth, you could pull up where downed power lines and flooded roads were at, you could transpose the "pre flood" and the "post flood" images, and the downtown area even had 3D models of the buildings.
Oh, and IT WAS FREE... and easy to use... And you can EASILY share information between other people. I put an icon in my Google Earth .KML describing a dead body that needs to be picked up and the proper agencies (who are "subscribed" to my .KML) see that information in SECONDS (or minutes at the latest). There were a limited number of people there who could legally move bodies according to LA law so it was a constant effort to get them to where they needed to be.
You add a VOIP aspect to it and POOF! Instant command and control for the different agencies. It is nigh-impossible to crash google's servers and as long as you had power (which was rapidly becoming a NON issue) and Internet access (same thing) you were able to talk and coordinate your efforts.
The beauty of the system is that as long as each agency updates their little piece of the pie everybody can see and use that data... Even if they don't update it, there was so much overlap that someone would see and report an incident.
One other problem. We are dealing with the CIVILIAN government and FEMA here. They have a major case of "It wasn't grown here"-itis. Everybody I showed it to was amazed and astounded with how easy and efficient it was... and the power of collaboration was something completely new and foreign to almost EVERYBODY involved... except for the 1st Cav. FEMA seems hell bent to spend MILLIONS of dollars setting up a command and control center that only talked to itself... AMAZING. I showed their tech people and some higher ups what Google Earth could bring to the plate and they were impressed. The tech types were ready and willing to embrace the tool, but hesitant because t
Installed flawlessly on fc5 with nvidia graphics. Extremely fast, smooth, I'm so glad to see this kind of support for Linux. I can only hope this furthers Linux and gives MS cause for alarm. Actually, I hope they're "pooping their pants". DY
What the streets looked like from 1,000 ft above helped you? Were you flying a helicopter? A9's street level photos may be more helpful for what your describing if by land.
It works perfectly for me, and my box is nowhere to be seen on the list of approved distros (Slackware box that started as 9.0 and has been upgraded to be somewhere between 10.1 and 10.2, with a bunch of -current packages thrown in for good measure.)
Maybe it's your distribution?
(this was about 349 days ago) ...and you know this because it's about the time you rebooted the BSD server last, right?" *g*
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
For those who like me are not Ubergeeks, I profer this: 1. Download the .bin file.
2. Find where it was downloaded to; for me, it was "Desktop".
3. Open a terminal, such as Konsole, and cd to the directory where it was downloaded.
4. su to become root, and make the file executable by changing its permissions - chmod 700 GoogleEarthLinux.bin worked for me.
5. Start the install by typing ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
6. Don't worry if you get a message about not having the right font.
7. To run it, type googleearth at a command prompt, such as "Run Command' in the KDE start menu. Create a link on your desktop by the usual means.
8. Enjoy, and send mad props to the folks at Google.
BSA: "Would you like a free Software Audit"? me: "No, thanks. My software is all Free".
Just to note, that unlike Picasa/Linux, this version of GoogleEarth IS downloadable from outside the USA without needing a proxy in the States...
Yay! Go Google!
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss
Maybe someone should tell the GoogleEarth people that it should be the GPO (General Post Office), in the middle of the central business district, 3352'4.49"S 15112'26.46"E . I'll submit a data error report, via http://earth.google.com/support/bin/request.py . Has anyone else reported errors here, and had them fixed?
Kudos to Google for the Linux client. Works wonderfully. I can finally put my GoogleEarth Wine hack to rest, which never displayed text and toolbars properly.
I used it for the exact same purpose, before moving to the Twin Cities from upstate New York. And I use it way more now that I am here. It is just so much handier than the web-based 'maps'.
Once I got into it a bit, I never looked back. It seems to have almost unlimited applications. locating anything, dividing community meeting locations up by date, getting the real 'lay of the land' regarding the walking involved between mass transit connections, it just goes on and on. Address location works better than Metro Transit's custom-built 'from here, to there' thing. Amazing stuff. When Google gets one right, it is really right.
If I was on the Gtalk team I'd be having serious feelings of "less than" right about now.
Money. The Point is MONEY.
There are some useful features with Google Earth for businesses. As another poster said, there is more then one version. The pay versions are getting their free advertising through this version. There are FAR better tools for most GIS work, but the smoothness of the display, the quick address location finding, and the fact that the boss has seen it make it a shoe in. Let me reiterate - the fact the BOSS and Upper Management have seen Google maps and now Google earth, they WILL want it over any functioning tool.
Google will come to your business and show you just why you should buy it, and even offer to use your data to populate it if need be.
I like, I've always liked it... as a US Windows user I'm not seeing any big differences, the 3d buildings were in my 3.x version too.
But I have two itty bitty complaints, the Hancock & the Smurfitt-Stone (The Vagina Building) buildings in Chicago... probably two of the most recognized buildings in our skyline (which is way up the list as one of the most recognizable skylines in the country) don't render anything remotely right... I couldn't even locate them based on the shapes the silly things rendered in that program.
Yeah, but if only they would fix the mouse wheel so it worked correctly ... like Google Sketchup works. Roll wheel forward, zoom in. Roll wheel backward, zoom out. Current behavior backwards from anybody else whose software zooms a view.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
DON'T KEEP HIM IN SUSPENSE!!!
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Google is finally realizing it's #1 fan. The Open Source Community and Linux users. I even gave Google feedback on the matter.
Google would do 'Summer of Code' and yet not support Linux in it's own applications.
\
This is no offense to you, peronally, but how sad is it that, in our modern era, a company can release software that doesn't achieve anything new, slap on an intuitive interface, and people will act like it's one of the greatest accomplishments in the entirety of human history?
Software like Google Earth has been around for a while. Most of it isn't free, but you can certainly buy a copy. And before you go off on how free Google Earth is, consider that it's free only after you've already shelled out the cash for a computer and internet access. For a large percentage of the earth's population, a $500 computer might as well be a $5000 computer, as they're both impossibly out of reach.
How can so many people be so brain washed by Google?
Maybe not
Maybe I missed it, but is there a way to see when a particular section was imaged? I'm looking at my house and I can guess it's a Friday morning (shadow position and the trash cans are out) but I couldn't say *when*. Any idea?
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
Slashdot quality moderating at work again, it seems.
Personally, I'm running Linux on amd64, and while I can run x86 apps with relative ease, there's a slight snag in that X.org's DRI drivers still don't handle 32-bit clients on 64-bit kernels.
Although that's offtopic: The KDE developers changed their naming scheme for KDE 4. The "K" is now considered mostly silly, new concepts and programs feature the "K" just very little: Solid, Plasma, Phonon, Oxygen, ... also the silly capitalizations are gone: amaroK is renamed officially to Amarok. See
http://commit-digest.org/issues/2006-06-11/
So, sorry, but all the silly joKes about KDE on slashdot need a new issue.
This seems to work beautifully. Tested on Debian etch, kernel 2.6.16, and NVidia QuadroFX 540. Tried it out for couple of hours, really fast and smooth, no crashes. Thanks Google!
This is escellent news. I have a windows computer, of course, so I can see how fucked up my webpages are in ie and also, yes, for halflife2, which I'm playing again just now. But it is so frustrating to find some software which would me useful and discover it's windows only. Usually if you complain, you'll get a recommondation to "write it yourself," but the software in question is closed source. So I find it especially commendable of google that they release a linux version of some flagship software. Good for them. And me.
grammar-lesson free since 1999. (rescinded - 2005)
Yeah, very trolly indeed... not. Linux = x86 Linux for so many that people really forget that if we're bound to x86 Linux we just have a free-as-in-beer Windows, not something truly free where we can choose our hardware. Like eg., GOSH, a x86-64 computer, but more to the point PowerPC-based computers, SPARC etc. were even chroot stuff cannot be done. But, suit yourself, the fact is that even a native x86 binary is nothing "new". It's nice for some, and might get more people to use Linux, but that's it. A good question is: Which does more good to our freedoms, a person using OpenOffice.org and OpenDocument formats in Windows, or a person using eg. Skype and Google Earth on x86 Linux? The first one can switch to eg. PPC Mac and use either Mac OS X or Linux or BSD there. The latter person has to stay with x86, and if eg. the vendor support for x86 Linux stops, he has to move to (probably) Windows.
Do you have SELinux turned off?
Picassa doesn't work for me. Okay, scratch that: it does, but I've needed to turn off SELinux.
Turns out that SELinux needs only be turned off for the first run.
Wikileaks, no DNS
Anyone noticed libevil.so lurking in the googleearth install dir ? ;-)
:)
what could google possible need that for
sarcasm aside , nice one google , much appreciated
[site]
Oh no! It only runs on x86 Linux!
This "outside" you speak of... I am intrigued, and would like to subscribe to your newletter.
Fractured Element
It would have been for Google to release Earth and Picasa as .package files. (See http://www.autopackage.org/ This way, the Linux installation would be better than on both Windows XP and Mac OS X. Is anyone at Google reading this?
Thanks, Google, for the Linux versions.
"Oh doesn't read well", "full of dupes", "lame comments", "I'm tired of listening to your babble".
Basically man, "beep beeeeep" and get a life. You grab any opportunity to tell the world that you are "cool" because you read Slashdot but all you do is complain while reading porn in a dark corner when nibidy is looking and if you don't like the Slashdot commentary....
DON'T BLOODY READ IT!
-rozzin.
If you think you can write that in 100 lines, it is painfully obvious you have no idea what the program even does.
Is now better than real turf, apparently.
Wikileaks, no DNS
Totally unreadable, the fonts are about 6 pixels high.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Joe Sixpack don't care for Stallmanism, he just wants his software to work.
Well... To be fair, Joe Sixpack doesn't care for voting, feeding starving kids in Africa, eating right, or taking care of the environment either.
Of course neither do I... And we are bad people for not bothering.
There I've said it... I don't care much for Stallmanism, but you have to acknowledge these people are better human beings than us because they try...(although inefectually)
It is kind of like Buddhism... Of course no single Buddhist is going to save all forms of sentient life by meditation. But it is the thought of their compasion and their self sacrifice that we should appreciate. (I mean a true Stallmanist can't play Xbox, download iTunes, or watch DVDs... who'd in their right mind would really want to live that kind of life... certainly not me)
Of course if it is the though that counts, then why is the road to hell paved with good intentions?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)