Network Links

Live Tracking of Tour de France in Google Earth

July 2, 2006

[NOTE: the live tracking link in this article was for 2006 ONLY. Here is a link to Street View imagery and routes for the 2008 Tour de France in Google Earth.]
The Tour de France coverage in Google Earth gets even better. The author of the Tour de France Google Earth file, showing the routes of the stages of ~~this~~ 2006 year’s race, has now added an ability to provide live tracking of race progress. Download the ~~TdF network link~~ , then open the “Tour de France 2006” places folder and turn on “Live TDF“. You ~~will see~~ saw a red bike showing the current progress of the race, and it indicates the distance travelled and local time stamp. Read more about the TdF 2006 network link in the earlier GEB story. Here’s the post by the author announcing the new tracking.
Here’s what the author says about yesterday’s stage and the new network link:

Saturday the prologue is taking place in Strasbourg. Today we start the first stage over 185 km, mostly flat. The network link has been updated to include the live tracking red bicycle.
You should see the red bike sitting near the 5 km mark on the track. It is showing a timestamp at 1:47:30, which is the time of the last test…

Tour de France 2006 Starts Tomorrow

June 30, 2006

With the Tour de France 2006 starting tomorrow, I just wanted to repost a link to this excellent collection showing the routes of to all the stages of this year’s TdF. This collection is being maintained at this thread at the Google Earth Community. Once you download the Tour de France 2006 GE File , you should save it in your My Places for the following two reasons: 1) the file may be updated for greater accuracy, and 2) the author plans to add some dynamic updates which will let you follow some of the action in real-time. For more details on this, check out the earlier Tour de France 2006 story.
If you’re planning to go watch the TdF, you might want to find hotels near the various stages. Check out Earthbooker which lets you fly over the various stages and find hotels in Google Earth. They have Earthbooker available in several languages now. Check out Earthbooker in English , Francais , Espanol , or Deutsch .

Aeronautical Information System

June 26, 2006

As mentioned a few days ago, Valery Hronusov, from Russia’s Academy of Science, and his associates have been working on a side project to provide an amazing new visualization tool for aviators. They have used their KMLer application (which allows you to process GIS information and create powerful visualizations in Google Earth) to create a Global Aeronatucial Information System. There is a huge amount of data buried in their AIS network links . In fact, you should watch out how much you turn on at once as it will quickly slow down your computer if you load too much at once. Included are high and low altitude airways (highways in the sky), runways, lighting systems, navaids, and much more.
Apparently, …

Project Thin Ice – Expedition to North Pole in Google Earth

June 7, 2006

An interesting Google Earth network link for tracking an expedition has been posted for Project Thin Ice, by Greenpeace. The project is drawing attention to the danger to polar bears due to the melting of artic ice. The web site includes a blog, videos, photos, maps, and now a Google Earth file for tracking the expedition. The GE file was done by Tim Harincar who also does Sailblogs.com I wrote about earlier. There is an image overlay of the estimated ice concentration added over the satellite photos of the area. I like the way the placemark descriptions provide a brief snippet of a blog entry with a link to the actual blog entry at the web site. Also, I like the way he has used the colored bubble descriptions to add the “green” for Greenpeace. (Read here for a story on how to make colored bubbles). Great work Tim!

FIFA World Cup Football Stadiums in 3D

June 3, 2006

A new blog called OrangeTea, by a Dutch Company, is dedicated to Google Earth information . They have started off by promoting a collection of the twelve 2006 FIFA World Cup football stadiums in Germany. NOTE: You have to turn off the “Terrain” layer to see them properly. The placemarks provide information on which games are scheduled to occur in each stadium. The models are a nice compromise between detail and complexity, and are placed properly so you can see the location in the aerial photos in Google Earth. The models are simple enough that they don’t tax your computer, but detailed enough to let you get the feel of the stadiums. Nice work OrangeTea!