Anybody play with Google Earth?

[audreyh1]

It's awesome! Pretty addicting. I've been "driving" places that I plan to drive in the motorhome.

Audrey

 

[Non sequitur]

I agree Audrey. It's astounding and free!

 

[cube_rat]

Great tool for stalkers

just kidding (sort of).

 

[justin]

I use it for work all the time. And for stalking.

 

[Mwsinron]

Pretty neat. Some of the mapping must be fairly old. My inlaws sold their trailer a few years ago and its still in the driveway on GE.

 

[Andre1969]

Another good one to try is http://local.live.com.  In addtion to the satellite maps, some locations have aerial photos too.  For example, here's the McMansion orchard up the street from me...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/jgandrew/Other Junk/DaiseyFields.jpg

As for the timeframe I'd guess it was taken in early 2003. Up in the left corner of the pic is my house and my grandma's across the street. I see some trees in both yards that came down in storms in late 2003. And there's a red and white truck in my Grandma's yard that I got in late 2002, so that's how I narrowed it down.

 

[astromeria]

Windows Live Local isn't happy with Firefox on OS X :

 

[Nords]

Pretty neat. Some of the mapping must be fairly old. My inlaws sold their trailer a few years ago and its still in the driveway on GE.

Your inlaws must not be using any of NSA's keyword tripwires on their cellphones...

 

[Mwsinron]

Your inlaws must not be using any of NSA's keyword tripwires on their cellphones...

Ya my mind rests easy now

 

[Andre1969]

I have problems with Local.live.com on my Mac at work, which runs OS-X. Explorer won't open it at all, and Netscape runs very sluggish. Works great on a PC though, running Explorer.

 

[AFloat]

Works good on a PC with Firefox 1.5.

 

[Meadbh]

The satellite photos are renewed at a frequency that varies with the population density. Also, there is no point taking photos when cloud obscures the landscape. So I think that cloudy locations are updated less frequently.

At one European location that I visit regularly, Google Earth shows a hole in the ground. In reality, there is a new hospital there and it is open. I think the picture must be at least two years old.

At another building project in Canada, the picture is about 6 months behind the current status.

GE is really helpful when visiting new territory. And it's way cool!

 

[jclarksnakes]

I love playing with Google Earth. If you go down to low elevation and then slant it over and move forward in the parts of the world that have high resolution PICs it is very much like low level flying. I have reflown in many of the places I used to fly in army helicopters. Take GE down into the Grand Canyon and try low level flying at high speed for a real thrill. The Google Earth PIC of my neighborhood has a red car in the driveway. Last red car I owned got sold several years ago so I know the PIC is not up to date. HMMM Maybe Mrsjclarksnakes has a boyfriend with a red car. I can only hope.
jc

 

[audreyh1]

The parking lot we've been staying in existed in Dec 2004 plus a building was under construction, but Google Earth shows an empty field.

"Flying" through some of the stuff around Moab UT (Moab is very high res, by the way), I'd say you need to increase the vertical scale to make is seem more like it appears when you actually drive there in a car. Going up the Colorado River Canyon east of Moab, you get some sense of the incredible canyon (1000ft walls), but still does not appear quite "high" enough.

But it's so cool!  The volcanoes in the Cascades really come up out of the earth!  Really imposing like in real life.

We're in Cle Elum, WA right now - mountainous terrain on the east flank of the Cascades.  Google Earth really lets you see what the terrain is like.  From the car you can't seem much when you are surrounded by mountains.

Audrey

 

[Mwsinron]

"But it's so cool!"

Made me laugh. Everytime I look at my DW's computer she is using it.

 

[Andre1969]

One thing that's kinda funny, with the pictures being taken at different times, is that I've actually spotted my cars at different locations. For instance, in the aerial shot of my old condo, I can see my 1979 New Yorker parked out at the curb. It also shows up in some of the pics of my grandmother's house, depending on whether you look at the East-West views or the North-South. I also checked out my Granddad's house (on my Dad's side), and I happened to be over there on the day they took a pic of it, because you can see my New Yorker parked out front there, too. Wonder what the chances of that would've been?

Looking at the shot of the parking lot at work, I can spot my pickup. And I can also spot it in my grandmother's yard. Funny thing about work though, is that it must've been taken on several different days, one of them being a weekend day. Because the East side of the center is packed full of cars, but the west side is totally empty.

 

[Nords]

Wonder what the chances of that would've been?

Gosh, unlike the rest of us, apparently the NSA is interested in your whereabouts!

 

[Meadbh]

One thing that's kinda funny, with the pictures being taken at different times, is that I've actually spotted my cars at different locations.  For instance, in the aerial shot of my old condo, I can see my 1979 New Yorker parked out at the curb.  It also shows up in some of the pics of my grandmother's house, depending on whether you look at the East-West views or the North-South.  I also checked out my Granddad's house (on my Dad's side), and I happened to be over there on the day they took a pic of it, because you can see my New Yorker parked out front there, too.  Wonder what the chances of that would've been?

Looking at the shot of the parking lot at work, I can spot my pickup.  And I can also spot it in my grandmother's yard.  Funny thing about work though, is that it must've been taken on several different days, one of them being a weekend day.  Because the East side of the center is packed full of cars, but the west side is totally empty. 

Here's a Google project for an ER with time on his/her hands:
Make a huge date sign to put on the roof of your vehicle. Update it every day. Google all the places you've been and find out how often Big Brother is watching you!

 

[jclarksnakes]

Here's a Google project for an ER with time on his/her hands:
Make a huge date sign to put on the roof of your vehicle. Update it every day. Google all the places you've been and find out how often Big Brother is watching you!

Medbh,
....I already do that but I encode the date so big brother does not know what I am up to. Seriously, I think much of the PICs used for Google earth are at least a couple years old.
jc