Network Links

Links: Seero for sale, i-gotU GPS logger review, Best of Building Maker expands

November 3, 2009

Seero For Sale: We’ve talked about Seero a few times in the past. They offer live video with GPS and did some cool stuff with Where 2.0 2008. Recently, the Seero team decided to sell the site (eBay auction) and all assets so they can focus on other projects. The site would be a serious investment, with a starting bid close to $50K. A good example of Seero’s capability can be seen in this Steve McQueen video.
i-gotU GPS: The folks at @trip have a nifty new GPS device to help you put your activity into Google Earth. I’ve been playing with it for a few days and I tend to agree with them — it’s a great little device. It’s tiny, waterproof and can be used for 80 hours non-stop; quite impressive!
The only big problem I had with it is that it’s not very compatible with Windows 7. My primary desktop and my primary laptop are Windows 7, and my netbook doesn’t have a CD drive. That meant I had to dig out my old XP laptop and fire it up. To their credit, it worked reasonably well on there. However, they need to solve the insane Windows 7 directions as quickly as possible. As neat as the device is, having to boot Windows in a special manner each time just to use the device is a bit too much. Also, there is no Mac version of the software available; they simply recommend Windows 2000, XP or Vista.
If you have a computer that can handle it, the cost isn’t too bad (under $100 for both models) and would probably be excellent if you do a lot of travel and/or hiking. I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know when they finally release decent software for Windows 7 and/or Mac. In the meantime, I’d hold off on this purchase unless you have an older Windows machine with no intention of upgrading to Win 7. Here’s a short sample video from their site to show what a track looks like:

Best of Building Maker: We’ve mentioned this collection before, but felt it was worth showing off again. With all of the Building Maker models that are arriving in Google Earth, the Best of Building Maker collection is a great way to see some of the best. None of my models have made it in there — have yours?

Fresh Update to the Ocean Expeditions layer

September 22, 2009

Google has just updated the Ocean Expeditions layer in Google Earth, and they’ve added some great content about expeditions around the world. To access this layer, simply check the Ocean Expeditions icon inside of the Ocean folder or you can open this kml file .

Once opened, a variety of ship icons will appear in the ocean. Ships with a yellow shaded background represent live or recent expeditions (such as the National Geographic expedition to Cocos Island), while ships with a blue shaded background represent expeditions older than six months (such as various expeditions by the Cousteau Society). As you zoom in, more details will appear. Also, if you select a placemark for a particular expedition, it will load tracks and other placemarks for more details on that expedition.
Hopefully you’ll find the Tahina Expedition in this layer in the not too distant future. 🙂

Cat 4 Storm Felicia Headed for Hawaii – See in Google Earth

August 7, 2009

Google Earth is a great tool for checking on weather – tropical storms in particular. Right now a category 4 storm is in the Pacific Ocean making a bee-line for Hawaii. The good news is that current forecasts have it losing strength before it reaches the islands. But, you can view the storm’s track, forecasted path, satellite photos, and much more using the Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth collected by Google Earth Blog. These tools are collection of great weather resources from a variety of organizations and individuals using data from NOAA, the US Navy, and many other weather providers.
In the screenshot below, you’re seeing storm forecast and tracking data from iMapWeather.com and NOAA satellite imagery from just a few minutes ago showing category 4 storm Felicia:

Read the GEB storm tracking post for more details on how to use Google Earth to perform storm tracking.

Google Marries Panoramio Lookaround to Street View

July 25, 2009

Google has announced an update to Street View that further marries Panoramio features into the Street View experience. In June of last year, Google added a feature in Panoramio called “Look Around” – it includes an interface that lets you see outlines, in perspective of the angle they were taken, of other photos available of the same scene. In March of this year, Google added Panoramio user photos into the Street View interface. Now the look around feature has also been married into Street View. Here’s a video showing what it looks like:

Here is a link to view Street View with the new interface for Big Ben – which Google refers to as “Photo Zoom”. Note: if you click on the link of the title of each photo (in the upper left of Street View’s interface), you can fly to that photo in Panoramio. Find the link to “Look Around” below the photo and you can use the Panoramio interface (which may make it easier to find even more photos).
Earlier this year, I discovered you can include the Panoramio Look Around interface into a Google Earth placemark. It works pretty well. But, the interface needs some tweaking to work properly within a placemark. (I suggested that to Panoramio, but it hasn’t been changed yet.) It should be possible to make a network link to view Look Arounds for any popular location inside Google Earth. Unfortunately, you can’t embed the Street View “photo zoom” interface at all apparently. Otherwise I would try putting that in a placemark.

Links: Google Moon Monday, Tax Evasion, Panoramio Winners, Canada Wins

July 17, 2009

Google Moon Monday – As reported here on GEB a week ago, Google sent out invitations for a “Special Announcement” on July 20th (the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing), with Buzz Aldrin speaking. Google will almost certainly be introducing a 3D moon for Google Earth (just like the 3D Mars already available). Google has now invited anyone to come to the Newseum in Washington, DC to see the event. Read the details. GEB’s Frank Taylor will be there reporting.
Tax Evasion – Google Earth has been used again to help investigate a tax evasion case. This time, reports of a evader having sold a house in a posh neighborhood in Porto Rotondo, Italy was the first clue. Next, it was heard the house had a “phallic”-shaped pool. Italy Mag reported on the case and speculates on which house it could have been. But, apparently there are a number of pools that might be a candidate. The article makes for an interesting read as it turns out the evader amassed tax omissions totalling 7 million Euros.
Panoramioa winners – The May winners of the monthly Panoramio photo contest have been announced.
GeoClusters – Barry Hunter has been experimenting with clustering and regionating placemarks for Geograph (a database of millions of photos of the UK). His techniques are definitely of interest if you are interested in developing geo-clustered data. Barry has released the source code. Read more about Geograph. [UPDATE: See review of this at Google Earth Design blog.
Canada Wins National Geographic Contest – In the world championship of National Geographic’s geography contest, Canada came in first place. US was 2nd place, and Poland 3rd.