The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Science & Nature => Topic started by: Pedro Picasso on April 05, 2005, 06:40:47 pm
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There's got to be at least one person on this board who's not heard of Google Maps (http://maps.google.com). This post is for you. Google Maps is great! maps.google.com It's wonderful. Think of MapQuest. Now make the map grow as you resize your window. Now make the map draggable. That's right, you drag the map around. No clicking left... left... up... left. No, you just drag it to where you want it. So much nicer.
Now add Google searches to it. I want "theatre raleigh, nc" and there they are pinpointed on the map. You can go to the website. You can get directions to a location. While looking at the directions, you can click on a specific turn to get a pop up minimap showing specifically that turn. It's wonderful.
And then comes my new favorite part. They just added satellite images to this thing. You look at a map and click satellite in the top right hand corner, and *bam* you're looking at an image from space of that same area. Thanks Arthur C. Clarke!!
It's really great. You should try it out. The maps are pretty accurate in my area, and I can see the smoke plumes from the nuclear plant in the satellite image. Fun stuff.
I am very excited about this company's service. Being excited makes me use the word 'bam.'
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On the satellite photos, at the tightest zoom, you can make out the shed in our back yard.
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holy shit.
i remember when i was growing up in the 80s, if i said anything to an "adult" about cameras in all them there satellites etc, most people wouldn't talk about it. kids, we'd make jokes about people watching you pick your nose, etc.
but, now, 2005, on the internet, free:
map (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.148182,-90.056080&spn=0.004882,0.007918&t=k&hl=en)
"So, Carl...
You feeling better today?
It _sure_sucks_ you got that 'flu' yesterday and couldn't come in to work.
Of course, even if you hadn't had to come in to work,
because of your Sudden Flu,
you would STILL have missed that concert at Mud Island.
Yes, indeed Carl, that sure sucks.
so, Carl, are you still driving that shitty blue hundai?
the one with the rust on the roof?
So Carl, yes, let's talk about your performance review..."
skeeeery sheet.
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I hadn't noticed the satellite feature, and it is a hell of a lot of fun to zoom it in all the way and drive around town seeing what things look like from above.
I was dragging around Kansas City and thought I found a really nasty, run down part of town, but apparently they just did the survey of that area in the fall or winter, so everything's brown when the rest is nice and green.
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Half of the State of Hawaii is military bases so I can't get very tight zooming. I can pick out my neighborhood but that's as close as it gets.
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I :heart: Google Maps. Is anyone surprised that their mapping stuff works *and* looks better than anyone else's? Google Local + Google Maps = throw away the yellow pages.
Thanks to Google satellite, to my shame, I now know that my green pool is visible from space.
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The Google Maps satellite photos aren't live - so your boss can't track your car with them.
In fact, the maps of my area look to be from sometime in the late 70s, based on large wooded areas where housing developments now stand.
It's bittersweet to see the old baseball field that I played in as a kid again, though, and fun just to see HOW MANY baseball diamonds there were in a 2-mile radius of the house I grew up in. Man, we played a lot of baseball.
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Half of the State of Hawaii is military bases so I can't get very tight zooming. I can pick out my neighborhood but that's as close as it gets.
Google maps is swank and all but terraserver lets you in closer, plus it tells you the year it was taken. Plus I find it funny that they won't show you military bases on HI but have no issues showing us the hot dog stand in the center of the Pentagon (http://terraserver-usa.com/addressimage.aspx?t=4&s=8&lon=-77.0561808980082&lat=38.8707508365005&alon=-77.08875248&alat=38.89049266&w=1&opt=0&qs=N+Barton+St%7cArlington%7cVA%7c&addr=N+Barton+St%2c+Arlington%2c+VA+22201).
Also I can pick out individual planes at Andrews Air Force Base (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=andrew's+air+force+base&ll=38.811178,-76.876112&sll=37.062500,-95.677068&spn=0.005397,0.006062&sspn=0.061401,0.089382&t=k&hl=en) on the Google one.
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Yup, my pool was green in 2002 also. Dark green. (http://terraserver-usa.com/addressimage.aspx?t=4&s=8&lon=-86.3007565880765&lat=32.3580832323553&alon=-86.29996609&alat=32.35807925&w=1&opt=0&qs=cloverdale+rd%7cmontgomery%7cal%7c&addr=Cloverdale+Rd%2c+Montgomery%2c+AL+36104)
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no space travel -> space travel -> satellites -> satellites with cameras -> satellites with cameras pointed at earth -> access to photos of earth taken by satellite cameras -> access to more photos -> access to better quality photos -> access to photos on internet -> Who Knows What The Future Holds???
amazing how history has a habit of increasing steadily with time.
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I think it's interesting that the Capitol building is fuzzed out, but the White House is clear.
I almost saw my car - the status of nearby new buildings dates the pictures to a couple of years ago, though, so it was probably my old car.
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I think it's interesting that the Capitol building is fuzzed out, but the White House is clear.
I almost saw my car - the status of nearby new buildings dates the pictures to a couple of years ago, though, so it was probably my old car.
Look closer. They've put grey censor strips on the roof of the White House buildings.
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I think it's interesting that the Capitol building is fuzzed out, but the White House is clear.
I almost saw my car - the status of nearby new buildings dates the pictures to a couple of years ago, though, so it was probably my old car.
You realize that between looking up the Whitehouse, Capitol, Pentagon, and AAB that my IP is now on some crazy watch-list, right?
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My House (http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=16&X=3341&Y=21193&W=1&qs=%7cbagdad%7cky), 10 months before we bought it.
Didn't we do this once already?
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Didn't we do this once already?
Yup (http://achewood.plagiarist.com/viewtopic.php?t=1104&start=0). In fact you started it.
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Didn't we do this once already?
Yup (http://achewood.plagiarist.com/viewtopic.php?t=1104&start=0). In fact you started it.
You sir are nothing if not reliable.
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Look closer. They've put grey censor strips on the roof of the White House buildings.
Ah yes... I didn't notice that at first. Still, it's a lot more recognizable, shape-wise, than the Capitol, which is pixellated at the closer zoom levels.
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Are those strips anti-aircraft weaponry of some sort?
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I've actually been on the roof of the White House. It's where they keep the topless sunbathing former first-ladies.
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I've actually been on the roof of the White House. It's where they keep the topless sunbathing former first-ladies.
Ewww. How about first-daughters? Ewwwwww.
This was the subject of Talk of the Nation today. No, not naked first-families, but the map thingy. It's big news, people.
I found my street. Or my parents' street, which I still consider mine.
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If you are a Las Vegas fan, it's fun to start at Mandalay Bay (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=3950+Las+Vegas+Blvd+South,Las+Vegas,+NV+89119&ll=36.092416,-115.175171&spn=0.005547,0.007703&t=k&hl=en) and work your way up the strip. You can tell who has the best pools, and also see just how fuck*ng HUGE the MGM Grand and Caesars are.
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I don't like the directions function of Google Maps. But touring Vegas was fun.