Google Creates Tour de France Video Maps

An anonymous reader writes "In honor of the Tour de France's start today, Google has used its awesome Street View technology to compile amazing Tour de France route views. A great description of the technology that went into creating this can be found in this LinuxDevices article. At least, I'm assuming these are the cameras — Google acknowledged using Elphel cameras for book scanning and 'capturing street imagery in Google Maps.' And from the article, the cameras have come a long way from the days when crazy cat ladies and other privacy freaks scuppered Street View in San Francisco a couple of years back."

Comments

Really?

[LEMONedIScream]

Privacy freaks. ow.

Yeah, those crazy privacy freaks!

[Macthorpe]

the cameras have come along way from the days when crazy cat ladies and other privacy freaks scuppered Street View in San Francisco a couple of years back."

Too right! I mean, everybody should just let Google photograph whoever they want and publish it on the web to drive hits to their website. Anybody who thinks otherwise is a privacy freak!

Re:Yeah, those crazy privacy freaks!

[thermian]

Anyone who describes cars with video camera's on top of them as 'awesome technology' can hardly be expected to understand privacy issues, can they...

Re:Yeah, those crazy privacy freaks!

[Goaway]

Are you saying there should be special rules that apply to Google and not to normal photographers?

Wha?

[Alarindris]

Scuppered? Seriously?

I guarantee that came from a 'word of the day.'

That's nice, the problem is the Tour itself

[blind biker]

Let me explain: I am an avid cyclist. Furthermore, I like everything bicycle: I built all my bikes, and I fix and adjust mine and my friends bikes.

And I can't stand Le Tour de France or Il Giro d'Italia. I hate the doping (and everything they do to hide it) and how massively it is happening. The commercializaition of these cycling events is disturbing for sure, but I am willing to accept it as a necessary evil. After all, these events have been commercialized long before even the heroic days of Binda, Coppi and Bartali. But what's going on is just bullshitting.

I don't follow these cycling events animore. I may check some of the track cycling GP competitions (less bulshitting, and it lasts a few days instead of weeks and weeks).

Any fellow slashdotter who actually follows the tour/giro?

Re:That's nice, the problem is the Tour itself

[mtdenial]

I do follow pro cycling fairly seriously and always look forward to the coverage of the the Tour. If you are complaining about doping, however, you cannot really talk about the past 'heroic days' without being hypocritical. I cannot speak for the others, but the champion Coppi wasn't clean. Amphetamines and good old fashioned alcohol were heavily used back in the day.

I have as much hatred for cheaters than some, more so than most. In my high school days I was a nationally ranked athlete (not cycling) and after more than one major event was privileged enough to get to pee in a cup in front of a variable number of rapt observers. That sort of humiliation for a clean athlete leaves it's mark for the sort of people who ruin it for the rest of us.

With all that said, however, it doesn't take away from the Tour being one of the most difficult sporting events on the planet. It's a damned impressive race all around. Maybe the top contenders are doping/cheating, as there is so much money on the line for the top guys, but there (I hope, though opinons vary) are a decent percentage of racers who are clean. My only real wish is that when they do get busted, they just accept it and not try to get out of it. See David Millar vs Tyler Hamilton.

Fuck Google and the ground they stand on

[gelfling]

I am having a Franz Kafka problem with Google. My wife (the worlds worst technophobe) lost the password to her blog. Today I discovered that the alternate email address for the account is not only an deliverable address it's an invalid domain altogether.

Google does not have a provision to fix this. The reset password either goes to the address for which I need the password, or, it goes to an undeliverable address. And every 'form' they have for every single problem on Blogger goes to the same submission form.

But here's the good part. To protect my privacy - Google's official response is to say in effect "We don't believe you, we think you're lying and so we won't and can't help you."

And there appears to be no recourse. No place to send an email no place to explain even in one sentence what this problem is.

So fuck Google and the Chinese Death Squads that use them. Fuck them all.

Google the Poodle

[Ken Murray]

Funny how in 2008 so many comments I see on message boards are from people now arguing against the liberties that Google are taking. They achieved it over the years by very simply portraying themselves as "Google", rather than "Google Corp/Ltd". Google is a business much like MacDonalds, Coca-cola, Microsoft, and your own local football team. It cannot be except from any privacy restrictions.

Let them do drugs!

[Snaller]

Then we can bet on who has the best doctor !