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Russian Town Puts Giant Smiley On Google Maps
Toramir writes "Citizens of the Russian town Chelyabinsk calculated when the satellite, QuickBird, which takes images for Google Earth and Google Maps, would cross above their city and used people to make a giant smiley face. A rock concert on the main square attracted many people and everyone got a yellow cape. It looks like someone at Google was quicker than usual to put up the new data. Maybe Google likes the idea of an entire town working hard to get its 15 minutes of fame. The article has a screenshot of Google Maps and images taken directly at the event."
In Soviet Russia, satellite smiles at you!
or the copyright owners of the smiley face will issue a DMCA take down notice.
Whether that would really happen or not, the news has become so much like the Onion that I kind of expect asshattery like that.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Not on maps.google.de (the screenshot is from the German google URL) either.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
In soviet Russia, we know when the American satellites are coming!
I don't see it on Google Maps:
http://tinyurl.com/butwhereisit
Up close and personal - the long version:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=+Chelyabinsk+&ie=UTF8&ll=55.159908,61.402202&spn=0.001906,0.005686&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=55.166667,61.4&ie=UTF8&ll=55.159688,61.402395&spn=0.005522,0.013089&t=h&z=17&iwloc=addr Not there now?
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&q=chelyabinsk+russia&ie=UTF8&ll=55.160141,61.402341&spn=0.005075,0.016522&t=h&z=17 Seems like nothing there in English Google Map
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
Here is the spot in the screenshot. No smiley, though.
You can see the search used in the image. Search for for 'Tscheljabinsk, russia' and zoom in. You can see that you end up in the same square, but there is no smiley there!
Also: cars were removed from the image close to the square, but they're in the same locations further away. Light hits the image from the same angle, which means same time and date difference from equinox).
type Chelyabinsk into google maps. the marker is where they assembled, but I cant see the smiley yet.
ÐÑо? ÐÑ Ð½Ð ÐонÐмÐÐÑÐ Ðо-ÑÑfÑÑÐÐ? ÑмоÑÑÐ Ð google ÐÐÑÐÐоÐ! ÐоРWow, seriously no cyrillic on slashdot? What is this the 90's?
Compare these two:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IeJHb-2CVGM/SNUFiyTlEHI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/shQMNh5h89o/s1600-h/smiley-1000.jpg
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=tscheljabinsk+russland&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=iceweasel-a&t=h&ll=55.160037,61.403425&spn=0.004793,0.011179&z=17
The cars on all the side streets and all the shadows are exactly the same. Someone just photoshoped out the cars on the main street and put in the smily. Nothing to see here.
http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&hl=de&geocode=&q=chelyabinsk+russland&ie=UTF8&cd=1&ll=55.160089,61.402384&spn=0.002538,0.008261&t=h&z=18 Nothing in German Google either.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=tscheljabinsk&ie=UTF8&ll=55.15989,61.402577&spn=0.003353,0.009656&t=h&z=17&iwloc=addr No smiley to be found
Very creative. But were they going for the Alfred E. Neuman look? Probably should have put the stage below the chin. Still love it. Perhaps more with the missing tooth.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
Way to frown on the happy parade! :(
Be relentless!
City on Google Maps
Screenshot from summary
Now, look at the vehicles on the street next to the smiley. On the south-west road, there are two cars next to each, same on both pictures. The cars also look the same on the north road, east of the smiley, and the road leading west. Looks like someone just cleared the street and added the smiley in.
Just to be sure, here is the link to the German Google Maps, which the screen shot appears to be coming from. I think it's a mock-up for when Google does update their images.
-rey
Do they still celebrate Lenin as a hero after the crap they endured because of him and his acolytes?
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
I had hoped idle would stay confined to idle. This is not technology.
This ... is ... IDLE!!! </300>
this is really cute! google maps hacks ftw!
"they didn't know it was impossible, so they did it!" - Mark Twain
Obvious Photoshop job. For punishment, I think we can all work together and put him over his bandwidth cap.
The game.
... Google searches for YOU!
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
It's worth mentioning that if you zoom in on Google maps and compare the two pictures, it seems that the parked cars and traffic from outside of the immediate smiley area are exactly the same. It appears as if the smiley was photoshopped in or out of one of the pictures.
Hmmm.
If a town or a street got renamed during the Soviet period, after 1992 its name was in most cases restored to the pre-revolutionary version. However, if the street was built during the Soviet period, of course it would not get renamed, since it never had a pre-Soviet name in the first place. Renaming a street just because its name is no longer politically fashionable is akin to rewriting history, no better than what the Soviets were doing.
There's about 20 "I don't see it in Google Maps" and "It was photoshopped!" posts that don't mention any of the basic reasons why this didn't work.
1. Google Maps isn't realtime, some areas have photos updated every few years. My house is a picture from over a year ago, for instance. Just because the bird goes overhead doesn't mean the content goes into Google Maps, and even if it did, it would only go in for a few days until the next pass, so... concept fail.
2. Did anyone actually LOOK at the photos taken on the ground at the event? It was OVERCAST. These are not magical Star Trek satellites with super inverse polaron field vision that sees through clouds.
Why aren't other folks touching on these VERY BASIC FLAWS with the clever premise?
For those who absolutely refused to read the article, here is an artist's impression
: )
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley
Engineering is the art of compromise.
: (
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
... Google searches for YOU!
There, fixed that for you.
I vaguely remember blocking idle so I wouldn't see this crap. Did I miss the memo outlining idle getting moved to tech?
No... wait... I see it! You kind of have to focus your eyes on a point behind the picture.
Sam! If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.
It appears as if the smiley was photoshopped in or out of one of the pictures.
Yes, it appears as if the smiley may have been added to the image using Adobe Photoshop software. Adobe Trademark Use
Somehow along the way I made a bad choice in life and now must live with 0 Karma.
correction: it's a good photoshop, because it fooled us enough to dig deeper. i think they succeeded in their prank marvelously.
Not the reputation a town wants.
Someone set something like this up with a screenshot of the town on Google Maps instead of a smiley!
I'm pretty sure that a recursive Google Maps will MORE than make up for a broken LHC.
Fooling a /. "editor" doesn't make it a good photoshop. It took me about a second to realize it was a hoax, and less than 30 more to look up the above link. I guess that was a bit too much effort for samzenpus.
I was pretty excited to see this article about my hometown! Until I read the comments. You people sure know how to rain on someone's parade :P
Had it been real it would have been a fun idea, if Google posted times when taking photos I guess more people would go outside, they should try that.
You should see how many things in the U.S. are named after Ronald Reagan!
Target Stores sometimes paint their logo on the roofs of their locations. I don't know if they do it for the sake of Google Maps, but it's quite visible. Here's one from a store in Chicago:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=target+stores+chicago&ie=UTF8&ll=42.006225,-87.886505&spn=0.012883,0.017509&t=k&z=16
Considering the illogical thing to gang up people on a street with traffic this seems to be a photochop.
But at least it's a good joke!
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
A new breaktrough in loseless image compression, what really matters of that image in just 2 bytes.
I disagree. I can provide a better artist's impression: :D
ne gavarite pa-Russki
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself. --Billy Bragg
It was just a stupid promo action for the local Internet service provider (is74.ru). They also gathered these people to sign the petition "please introduce a $15 unlimited Internet plan". Although they did not collect enough signatures, they still introduced it.
Also, they promised to hire a plane to get rid of the clouds (which would not help anyway - google maps will never add just a 500×500 meter shot to their maps if everything else is covered by clouds. They also promised that you'll be able to see the shots on Google Maps the next day - which is also a blatant lie. This ISP already had a terrible reputation for cutting the optical cables of its competitors, and now this.
... everybody involved in Idle dies horribly at the end.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Someone probably felt that Chelyabinsk could use some positive publicity for a change, as they have so far only been known as the "Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet": http://www.logtv.com/films/chelyabinsk/
...which is why I'm graciously refraining from posting that link...now why do I suddenly get Boy George singing Karma Chameleon in my poor skull?
Though I doubt no one cares at this point, I took the images in the article, and the current google map images, and overlapped them. If it was a photoshop job they did a really good job with the traffic. If it was real, then the same cars just happen to park in the same places on those days. Or maybe the satellite passed by twice on the same day to take a shot at a different time. The link to my image file is here.
I see that according to good old Eastern European custom, the smiley has bad teeth. Probably too much vodka...
:)
(Disclaimer: I say this as a Hungarian with bad teeth.
They should have made them wear sombreros or, even better, giant yellow graduation hats. This smiley looks washed-out. As for being captured by the satellite's camera, here's a couple of alternatives to photoshopping:
Read the discussion in the link after the images taken on the event.
This was a real attempt, but it was acknowledged (by people who were there) as failed, probably beccause of the overcast.
It was a ploy event for a local IPS (which according to the commenter happens to have bad reputation anyway).
Case closed?
'â' would be a better impression, if /. worked with Unicode. Oh well.
Maybe Google likes the idea of an entire town working hard to get its 15 minutes of fame
goddamn everything doesnt need to be negative, you know. maybe someone thought it was something fuckin' nice to happen, and people to see ?
i like our culture, but this 'sarcastic pessimistic know-it-all zit' thing sometimes fails badly. gets tiring.
Read radical news here
Toilet paper knows when you are coming! Oh, wait a minute...
Looks fake to me. The screenshots on the article's websites show the cars on the exactly same positions, so it's obviously the same square, photoshopped.
Your head a splode
Nothing in Russian google maps
http://maps.google.ru/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&q=chelyabinsk+russia&ie=UTF8&ll=55.160141,61.402341&spn=0.005075,0.016522&t=h&z=17
America, Home of the Brave.
^_^
________
Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
Off-topic, I know, but I'd never seen this before, and I found it quite funny.
Trademarks are not verbs, therefore verbs are not trademarks, therefore 'photoshopped' is not a trademark, and can therefore be used freely. Or am I applying logic where none applies? (Yes, I know, trademark law probably covers stuff like this.)
They seem pretty different to me. The google maps version has a lot of traffic on the road leading off to the right, but the article picture doesn't.
The parked cars are in the same spot, but the traffic isn't.
I'm more impressed that they made their park a union jack, I guess that was put up a 100+ years ago, so maybe they just have a history of sucking up to the powers that be..
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
The other pictures from the event clearly show an overcast sky. Even if they did time it properly for the next fly-by, I doubt the google earth image will show anything.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
yep, they cleaned some cars on the right, but on other streets its all the same
Higuita
That screenshot from "blogger" contains, in the bottom-right corner a small "P", that comes from an online game called "PMOG" ( http://pmog.com/ ).
I don't know exactly the rules of this game, but I remember that about an year ago I played it.
To get/steal points in this game, you have to trick users (who are also players of PMOG) to enter on a web-page where you left "mines".
So my theory is that he got the news, photoshopped the current screenshot (to get e-press* attention) and released it on the internet, and waited to propagate around, so he will get an advantage in the game.
So the article is half true (the concert and the people), and half false (they don't have the photo this way).
Epic hoax ! Great played !
* - update your buzzwords list
It just shows that these people like to have a little fun too once in a while like the rest of us.
All content in this message is copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved. RIAA is prohibited here.
... but they even kept most of the cars in the precise same spots as the present image!! What a production!
The actual url from the article's screenshot is this: http://maps.google.de/maps?t=m&hl=de&q=Tscheljabinsk+Russland Takes you to the same place with no smiley face. Some cars have been photoshopped out but others are in the exact same positions as the fake photo.
Off-topic, I know, but I'd never seen this before, and I found it quite funny.
Trademarks are not verbs, therefore verbs are not trademarks, therefore 'photoshopped' is not a trademark, and can therefore be used freely. Or am I applying logic where none applies? (Yes, I know, trademark law probably covers stuff like this.)
I tried to Google for an authoritative answer, but didn't come up with anything.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
i love google earth and i have a blog about it . so nice picture :-)
It also looks in the other photographs like a cloudy overcast day when the smiley event actually happened. However in the Google screenshot it looks sunny.
As the name GIMP is not a trademark, it is perfectly allowable to use it as a verb, noun, adjective, and in all the other ways Adobe won't let you use the name Photoshop. Just expect to get a lot of strange looks if you do!
(Disclaimer: this post does not detract from any or all other ways GIMP might be, objectively or subjectively, superior to Adobe Photoshop. Your mileage may vary. Offer void where prohibited. Posting and reading Slashdot may shorten your real life. This is not legal or medical advice, consult trained professionals if necessary.)
If you take the Google Maps version and the "screenshot" version into Photoshop, layer them, and set the top layer to "Difference", it is obvious it is a photochop.
Now that would be funny.
Somebody needs to make a huge magic-eye and let Google take a pic for the satellite. I wonder if it would still work.
Looks like the UK got there first by designing the park at the bottom of the screen to look lie the Union Flag.
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
It is not necessarily wrong; language evolves by its use. It is called a synecdoche: "a term denoting a specific class of thing is used to refer to a larger, more general class.
If you google the term, you should be able to print out the definition and xerox it for the world to see.
I Britannica'd the info and found what you're looking for. I'll Xerox the page and UPS it to you.
Non-photoshopped Bart Simpson, mowed into a farmer's field near some property that used to be in the family...
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=15&X=1711&Y=22050&W=2&qs=%7CSt.+Joseph%7CMO%7C/
http://maps.yahoo.com/index.php#mvt=s&lat=55.872849&lon=37.661707&mag=1&zoom=18&trf=0
Looks fake to me. The screenshots on the article's websites show the cars on the exactly same positions, so it's obviously the same square, photoshopped.
That makes me angry. They go through all the trouble of handing out yellow capes to hundreds of people. They tell them where to stand, and they probably have to wait there for quite a time while the satellite passes over. They have to block traffic, and business, etc. Then some humourless drone down at Google goes and photoshops all that work away. It was probably done by the same sourpuss person who got rid of the "Swim across the Atlantic" instruction you used to get when asking for directions from New York to London, England.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
http://englishrussia.com/?p=2064#more-2064 http://maps.yahoo.com/index.php#mvt=s&lat=55.872849&lon=37.661707&mag=1&zoom=18&trf=0
Looks fake to me. The screenshots on the article's websites show the cars on the exactly same positions, so it's obviously the same square, photoshopped.
That makes me angry. They go through all the trouble of handing out yellow capes to hundreds of people. They tell them where to stand, and they probably have to wait there for quite a time while the satellite passes over. They have to block traffic, and business, etc. Then some humourless drone down at Google goes and photoshops all that work away. It was probably done by the same sourpuss person who got rid of the "Swim across the Atlantic" instruction you used to get when asking for directions from New York to London, England.
I think you have missed the point. Google is not the one doing the photoshopping here, the people claming to have done this are.
Throw the bums out!
Hum, I think we have a suspect ...
Whoooooooooosh
Prologis does this on some of their warehouses. If you have a warehouse or other large flat-roof building in a flight path, you could probably rent the space as a billboard. (GIS for "Prologis" for pics.)
It was definitely 'shopped, but I did manage to find a real instance of this happening. It was in Central Park, NY, weird...
Here's a screenshot:
http://05lan.dyndns.org/public/centralpark.JPG
This one is definitely not photoshopped.
Srsly u guys. U guys, srsly.
Looks fake to me. The screenshots on the article's websites show the cars on the exactly same positions, so it's obviously the same square, photoshopped.
Yeah, no one would ever park their car in the exact same parking spot day after day of work, or leave a car parked in a single spot for days at a time.~
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Isn't anyone else reminded of the PS3 game "The Last Guy"? http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/14265437/the-last-guy/images/the-last-guy-20080820102941083.html I couldn't find a quick screenshot of it, but on some levels the people you're trying to save spell out "Help me" and such (in the language of the city you're trying to save too... cool).
3 byes. There's a space. :P
Woohoo! My server lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes of slashdot.
PR PR PR!
Srsly u guys. U guys, srsly.
It's 3 bytes actually, he added a space there ;)
Actually, the purpose of news (at least TV news) seems to be exactly the opposite of what you claim. Look at Fox News, with their constant assertions that anybody to the left of Genghis Khan is an atheist traitor of dubious intelligence. Does that mean that Rupert Murdoch is out to change America into a right-wing theocracy? Not at all. The dude is actually pretty moderate in his opinions, and is good friends with Hilary Clinton. All he cares about is eyeballs. And the way he attracts eyeballs in the U.S. is by telling right-wing dittoheads what they already know. In the U.K., it's by adding soft core porn to a regular newspaper. On The Simpsons, it's by making fun of the very institutions that made him rich, and even of himself.
The "eco" stuff on CNN is more of the same for a different audience. Nobody is going to jump on the "save the planet" bandwagon because somebody on TV told them to. What those pieces do is make pro-ecology middle class Americans feel less guilty about their huge carbon footprints.
See also: "Palm Pilot" used to refer to all PDA-like devices, "Jeep" used to refer to any small 4x4.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
sadly, it's the lameness filter. hop over to slashdot.jp sometime, full utf-8 support. apparently the japanese don't have problems with lameness filters.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
You can see the goole map image here: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Russia,+oblast+Tscheljabinsk,+Tscheljabinsk&ie=UTF8&cd=1&ll=55.160251,61.403317&spn=0.003561,0.007381&t=h&z=17&iwloc=addr Notice that its the same picture as there are cars in the same places with a few vehicles removed near the smiley face as well to help wit the blending. Cars parked in rows near the bottom of the screenshot are all identical to the current map image.
Look again. Even the moving cars (the ones that have not been photoshopped away) are in exactly the same place.
INCOMPLETE SIG!, Plz call Commissar now!
Holy MOLEY, Batman! Not enough "caped" crusaders...
Yeh, and Slash lacks Asian fonts, too, at least last time i tried.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
DIGITAL wipeout coming...
What would be funny is if the next time the Gbird overflies wall street, about 25,000 people form letters:
"THE NUKES ARE HERE"
Give Langley and that huge, off-colored hill-top building outside of Baltimore something (else/additional) to do...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
You can see actual people gathering here (http://russianfun.net/russian-fun/giant-smiley-face-from-russia/)
Only after I use a Kleenix and get some coffee from the Thermos.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
From the 'one the ground' photos, it looks like there is a fair chance the google shot was done on a different day, as it's cloudy on the day of the event, which presumably prevents the satelite from taking pictures of the ground beneath the clouds.
I'd suggest this is a more likely story:
Dance party promoter makes up story which will attract punters to event, using the story of the smiley, widely associated with the use of the party drug Ecstacy.
"A smiley big enough to be seen from Space!"
Punters know it's going to be their sort of event, because they love to take party drugs.
Profit!
This one is definitely not photoshopped.
No, but it WAS mspainted.
Homonyms are fun!
You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
4. The null character. ": )\0"...not to mention the pointer to said string?
I remember in one of my computer science classes the professor showed us the Adobe post on a unofficial Photoshop (et all) discussion board, asking them to stop saying "Photoshop" and use "Adobe Photoshop" and also stop using it as a verb. I believe this is because they would lose the trademark (yet Xerox is still Xerox). Though no word phrase is quite as good as "Photoshopped". Enhanced in photoshop sounds like we adjusted the color and contrast in photoshop, but photoshopped seems like we added extra smoke trails to make the news more dramatic or added a similie face to the google maps screenshot. Then again when we say "15 minutes of fame" it is entirely possible that another satellite image was taken, and no photoshop was involved.
meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"
(removed the less/greater-than signs as it wasn't displaying)
I think they were Gimped in.
anytime something cool like this happens everyone says its photoshop.