"Wow." "Amazing." "Incredible."
Sit next to someone who is trying out the new, free Google Earth program for the first time, and you're likely to hear similar exclamations.
"If you're going to write about this, tell your readers to be prepared to spend a few hours in awe."
So what's all the fuss about? Put simply, Google Earth shows you the world like no other software program ever has. Download Google Earth (http://earth.google.com), and within minutes you're looking from outer space at the little blue ball we call Earth. Type a location into the "fly there" box and you zoom down from outer space, with topography, countries, and cities slowly coming into view.
But the real magic happens next. Zoom further down, and Google Earth gets more detailed -- much more detailed in many cases. This is where the exclamations of incredulity usually arise from first-time users. The program uses high resolution imagery drawn from a number of sources, including images taken by satellite and aircraft over the past three years, to give you a representation of the earth's countries, cities, towns, and streets that is detailed to the point of showing individual houses, boats, cars and trees.
"Broadband streaming technology" and "3D graphics, much like a video game, (allows) users interactively to explore their world, either their own neighborhood ... or the globe," says John Hanke, a general manager at Google who helped oversee the Earth project.
Most users are startled at the level of detail available in the program. But don't be too concerned: what you see in Google Earth isn't real-time data, nor is it so detailed that could zoom in to see yourself looking at the computer with your mouth hanging open -- at least not yet.
But you can see plenty. "I can locate my own townhouse," Medley said, exclaiming, "I could even spot my car sitting in the parking lot."
Google Earth does not offer that degree of detail for all places. Currently, selected cities and towns in the US are covered in high resolution, but greater high-resolution coverage of major areas around the world is underway and will be added in the coming months, Google notes.
A complete list of high-resolution coverage is available in the coverage list that is freely downloadable from http://earth.google.com/coverage/google_earth_coverage_list_2005-06- 07.pdf.
When starting off, choose places such as New York City, Paris or the Grand Canyon in Arizona to get a taste of the mapping detail.
According to Google, the best view you get is equivalent to a 1m distance. A little experimentation will show that you not only get a bird's eye view at street level but can also alter your perspective and zoom through the streets horizontally, as though you were looking at things from an automobile cruising about the ground.
Depending upon the speed of your computer and your Internet connection, a bit of patience may be required when first viewing a location. That's because Google Earth streams necessary data to your computer as you zoom in on a location. The small footprint of the initial installation means that you're getting basic code to run the program; as you exercise the program's features, more information is downloaded to your PC on an as-needed basis.
A status bar labeled "Streaming" along the bottom edge of Google Earth's main screen lets you know what percentage of the data currently in view is complete. The good news is that the image builds dynamically, so you can see cities, towns, topography, and even street names and buildings appear before your eyes when you first view a location.
At some point while using Google Earth, you'll probably wonder how Google can offer so much functionality free of charge. While Google is typically tight-lipped about how it monetises free offers, it's fairly easy to see how Google Earth could generate plentiful revenue streams. First, there are options in the program that allow you to display information such as coffee shops, restaurants, lodging and rental car locations in particular locations; advertisers will pay to get their information displayed in a program destined to receive the amount of attention that Google Earth will.
Also, Google Earth is currently available in three versions. In addition to the basic Google Earth, there are two retail editions: Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro. The Plus edition, available for US$20, includes GPS integration, allowing you to read and track locations from your GPS, high-resolution printing, customer support, and annotation capabilities.
The Pro version, which costs US$400, includes multiple terabytes' worth of imagery and 3D data depictions of the entire Earth, more than you get with the other two versions. A host of other features is available in the Pro version as well.
Google Earth will run on most PCs sold during the past two years. It does require a PC or notebook with 3D graphics capabilities for rendering the detailed topographies it provides. Full system requirements can be found at http://earth.google.com.
March 10 to March 16 Although it failed to become popular, March of the Black Cats (烏貓進行曲) was the first Taiwanese record to have “pop song” printed on the label. Released in March 1929 under Eagle Records, a subsidiary of the Japanese-owned Columbia Records, the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) lyrics followed the traditional seven characters per verse of Taiwanese opera, but the instrumentation was Western, performed by Eagle’s in-house orchestra. The singer was entertainer Chiu-chan (秋蟾). In fact, a cover of a Xiamen folk song by Chiu-chan released around the same time, Plum Widow Missing Her Husband (雪梅思君), enjoyed more
Last week Elbridge Colby, US President Donald Trump’s nominee for under secretary of defense for policy, a key advisory position, said in his Senate confirmation hearing that Taiwan defense spending should be 10 percent of GDP “at least something in that ballpark, really focused on their defense.” He added: “So we need to properly incentivize them.” Much commentary focused on the 10 percent figure, and rightly so. Colby is not wrong in one respect — Taiwan does need to spend more. But the steady escalation in the proportion of GDP from 3 percent to 5 percent to 10 percent that advocates
From insomniacs to party-goers, doting couples, tired paramedics and Johannesburg’s golden youth, The Pantry, a petrol station doubling as a gourmet deli, has become unmissable on the nightlife scene of South Africa’s biggest city. Open 24 hours a day, the establishment which opened three years ago is a haven for revelers looking for a midnight snack to sober up after the bars and nightclubs close at 2am or 5am. “Believe me, we see it all here,” sighs a cashier. Before the curtains open on Johannesburg’s infamous party scene, the evening gets off to a gentle start. On a Friday at around 6pm,
A series of dramatic news items dropped last month that shed light on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attitudes towards three candidates for last year’s presidential election: Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), Terry Gou (郭台銘), founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It also revealed deep blue support for Ko and Gou from inside the KMT, how they interacted with the CCP and alleged election interference involving NT$100 million (US$3.05 million) or more raised by the
RSS