google maps street view – amazing

When I first used google maps I was utterly speechless at the smooth way they could present the incredible amount of data that the system held. Well, they’ve done it again – in spades!

There are plenty of blog posts talking about it, but the instructions found at googlemapsmania are simple and easy:

head over to Google Maps, center the map on the US and click “Street View”. Click a city with a camera marker and zoom in to have a play.

Once you’re there, click anywhere on a blue outlined street and suspend all disbelief… this is a ‘virtual tour’ on a scale no-one has even dared dream about. For a quick way in, try this view of the Golden Gate Bay bridge (thanks Jeff), which Product Manager, Stephen Chau rates as his favourite.

The big question is HOW? This is a lot of work, in anyone’s language, so how have they done it? Not hard to see that the images are taken in sequence, about 25m apart, and there are reflections that suggest some sort of plastic bubble – probably mounted on top of a car. I would have expected this to be done with a one-shot pano camera, but some images show signs of being stitched (though maybe it’s those reflections again). I’m assuming they are located using geocodes, so that’s probably automated into the exif data… incredible stuff!

Another aspect which should not be overlooked, is that the ‘Link to this page’ link works as you’d hope (better than you’d expect!). It takes you to the map, the location, the view and the zoom level – all in one hit. Business is going to love this!

Just imagine what implications this has if they release some API hooks for the pano viewer!

Burma, the saddest country

It’s been a sad week or two for the people who want to see Burma become part of the modern world.

First, we had the story that Russia was to build a nuclear reactor in Burma. I suppose as long as there are controls, this is no worse an idea than lots of other places. It may also see the reliability of the electricity supply improve – at least for those in power, on the other hand, if you’re in an outlying town where there aren’t any important people, you probably won’t notice the difference.

Then we heard the unsurprising, but tragic news that the beautiful, regal, patient, Aung San Suu Kyi would have her detention extended another year. A tragedy that the superb, resilient, resourceful people of Burma would still not have a leader they can call their own. Even more amazing, her supporters put their lives on the line to protest in public. These are really brave people, the possibility that they will be imprisoned or even killed is very real. Could you do that?

long hairFinally, a small sad story. These three women are walking along the main street of Nyaung Shwe, near Inle Lake. The town is high enough to get chilly in the mornings – it was about 12°C, enough to have the locals all wrapped up in gloves and beanies, but most charming was the way the women all wore woolen jackets. They also have the most beautiful, glossy long hair… many Burmese women do.

This hair is so beautiful that it is now the target of thieves. People snip the women’s hair without them knowing – in market places or on the street. It makes the thieves a fair bit of money in a country where most people barely scratch out a living. I find this the saddest bit of news, that these beautiful, smiling, open women were targeted by such an invasive and symbolically violent crime.

Telstra’s broadband campaign…

What a cynical, politically motivated dummy spit – gotta be some kind of a record.

Before you begin believing Sol and his mates and start to doubt the ACCC, ask yourself if you really want a company like Telstra to have undue influence over the future of broadband (and it’s pricing) in Australia. They can’t even deliver an equitable product to their current broadband customers – as a mac user with Telstra broadband cable, I can vouch for the fact that they don’t give a flying f*ck about minority user groups.

As soon as ADSL+2 is available at our exchange, I’m giving them the boot. If they want to invest their dollars overseas, let them! Someone will build a network here and then they can charge Telstra a ripe premium for the privilege of competing for our custom.

If you haven’t stopped listening already…

… stop listening now!

I was nearly violent towards the TV tonight as John Howard weasled his way around Kerry O’Brien’s questions on the 7:30 Report. He is finished. They’ve had their chance and they are finished … and now it sounds like they’re manipulating Telstra’s broadband campaign to their own crafty political ends – makes me sick.

I won’t deny that the libs have kept the economy in reasonable economic shape, but that is, in the end, just sums – I’m sure the ALP have got a few people that can add up too. No, people have realised that money isn’t everything, on an evening where a corporate executive is awarded a sickening $33 million dollar bonus, folk are unanimous that a few dollars a week in the wallet is not what life is all about. We need leadership interested in more than the status quo. The libs have failed miserably on that one – please stop listening now!

my maps are google maps

brimbank-gmap1Google’s most revolutionary tool, Google Maps, has just added a new feature – My Maps – which brings ‘mapping’ to the masses.

It is brilliant. You can create maps, draw shapes, make points, add html features such as photos. Sure, there are dozens of tools out there already which allow similar capabilities, but Google, in typical style, have created the basic flexible framework which will see the widespread adoption to make it mainstream. And… the really neat part for me is the ‘KML’ link, which downloads a kml file for Google Earth.

What’s so good about that? You can do all the drawing and mapping in GE, but you can’t manage a web repository of your files – that’s the beauty of ‘My Maps’.

Once I have my KML file I can use GPSBabel to convert it to GPX and upload it to my Garmin eTrex. So, effectively, ‘My Maps’ is now my web based respository of GPS data!

To give it a road test, yesterday I mapped out the route from Maribyrnong park to Brimbank park along the Maribyrnong River. This ride is part of Bicycle Victoria’s ‘Bike path discovery’ program, but you don’t need an excuse to ride it – it is a beautiful track. Anyway, the mapping worked perfectly – I was a happy (and tired) cyclist by the end of the day.

Wishlist: I won’t consider it perfect until I can import kml or gpx I’ve created elsewhere. As it matures, I’d also like to see fuller support for GPX, such as perserving icons etc. but that’s secondary.

Recommendation: get out there and start mapping – I think we’re about to see mapping and mashups go seriously mainstream!

I can even view my flickr stream as GeoRSS in Google maps!

eliza’s mother is very cross!

elizas_ear1Eliza has beautiful, long, wavy golden hair. When she announced tonight that she was going to have it all shaved off in the name of charity, her mother forbade it… not that she took any notice of that… she was always a headstrong girl!

Anyway, she seems committed, so next Friday it all comes off as part of the world’s greatest shave. I suppose we should be grateful, after all, it’s hard to think of a more worthy cause than the Leukaemia Foundation.

So, please help make it all worthwhile. Follow this link directly to Eliza’s secure sponsorship page and give generously.

sydney under the microscope

It’s just over a month since Google made their much publicised flyover of Sydney for Australia Day, but I’ve just received the email to let me know it’s all gone live! It’s huge! the resolution is eye popping. I’ve yet to have much of a look around, but the email from google included the following locations to get me started; Queenscliff Bay, Shark Bay, Bondi Beach, Manly Beach, Luna Park, North Bondi, Helicopter, Tall Ship, Fort Denison and Circular Quay.

Not a bad selection, but I’m sure we’re about to see a flurry of interesting sightings over the next few weeks. I noticed that the famous swimming pool at the south end of Bondi Beach seems to have suffered a major earthquake, but I’m yet to spot any ‘events’ where people have gathered to get noticed on google maps, though this was a major thrust of the publicity.

At first glance, if I was at google, I think I’d be a bit disappointed. The coverage appears to be pretty patchy and has caused them a fair few splicing problems. Also, is it just me, or are the shots a bit over exposed? I was expecting the boats around the Opera house to be great sights, but they are mostly bleached out. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how the community reacts. Are they going to ‘do’ Melbourne next?

updates

You’d be a bit pissed off if this was you. Spending the time and effort to get a huge sign out there where the google plane would see it only to have the light fall on it in such a way as to make it illegible.

geotagging workflow for mac users

It’s not always easy using a Mac. Being in the minority means you don’t have access to many of the tools others take for granted. GPS is a good example. I love my little Garmin eTrex, but Garmin don’t love my mac. They have promised software this year, but details are very sketchy. So, I live hope, but in the meantime, I’ve got things I want to do, like geocoding the 2,000 odd photos I took on a recent holiday to Thailand and Myanmar!
Continue reading “geotagging workflow for mac users”

a tale of GPS woe…

I’m a little bit obsessed by maps… and gadgets. Oh, alright, computers too! So, naturally, a GPS was one of those things I just had to have. I was lucky enough to have a Garmin eTrex Venture for a six month loan. Nice little unit – some limitations, but as a first taste it was perfect… I was hooked. When the time came to give back the loan unit, I knew I wouldn’t survive without one for long, so I started researching my purchase.

etrex-legendDidn’t take me long to decide on the Garmin eTrex Legend Cx. For a start, I liked the original Garmin, and they were the only company offering Mac support (albeit, at some date in the future). I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied without colour, maps, USB and expandable memory, so the choice was easy.

It is gorgeous. It does everything I could have asked for – and more, but it hasn’t been without it’s problems. It has taken two trips back to the distributor – one for replacement – and a lot of careful testing, but I think I’ve found the problem and just want other Mac/Garmin users to beware.

I have Virtual PC, which allowed me to use Garmin MapSource without a problem, but I also have a number of Mac tools I’ve used with other devices quite happily – my favourite is Load My Tracks. Simple, and it mostly does what I need. My mistake was to use a mac tool while Virtual PC had control of the USB port. I am sure this it the issue, though I’m not about to sacrifice another GPS to test it. Virtual PC ‘captures’ the USB port for its own use, but the Mac still knows it’s there and it seems apps can use it. Result is mixed messages to the GPS, possibly writing data to places it shouldn’t or maybe missing an end of file marker… who knows, but the result seems to be a major software glitch.

Aside from the fact that it happens, which is a bit of a concern, it highlights a major failing with the Garmin that I can’t do a hard reset. Garmin support did at one stage talk me through a couple of ‘reset’ procedures, but they seem to be at a higher level than I needed. Having to send the unit back to base just to have it reset is a bit of a worry.

Anyway, more recently, I’ve kept my MapSource use to a PC and never used LoadMyTracks when Virtual PC was loaded, and things seem to be sweet. I recommend other mac users do the same.

never forget it’s your money…

As a postscript to our asian holiday, we’ve been replacing just about every credit/debit card we own (don’t even ask!). So, every couple of days a new envelope arrives from one bank or another.

Each new card is accompanied by a new PIN. For security reasons (and just plain common sense!), banks don’t send these out at the same time… well they’re not supposed to, but we’ve had three new cards from the Commonwealth bank in the last fortnight which have all arrived in the same post as the PIN envelopes.

I mentioned this to the person in the call centre when I activated the first card and was told that it was most unusual! The second time, I just rolled my eyes. The third time, I was really ticked off, so I rang them to complain and was met with a brick wall. I was told the only thing I could do was issue a formal written complaint. They didn’t really want to know.

We’ve got all our new cards now, so I’ll probably forget this little episode until next time it happens in the years to come. Grrr!