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Google Maps arriva in versione pedonale
Se andate in giro in auto in alcune città precise, o ne avete davvero bisogno, o siete dei pazzi. Ecco, l’abbiamo detto. Ma Google Maps ha dato per scontato che tutti si muovono in auto per andare ovunque, finora. Sì, finalmente Google Maps ha un’opzione per chi vuole fare percorsi a piedi. Contando la differenza di velocità tra l’andare a piedi e il muoversi su quattro ruote, stima che per coprire un paio di chilometri ci vogliano circa 19 minuti. E dice di muoversi con cautela in aree pericolose . Si spera che l’aggiornamento sia valido anche sulle mappe del’iPhone dal prossimo aggiornamento. Se andate in giro in auto in alcune città precise, o ne avete davvero bisogno, o siete dei pazzi. Ecco, l’abbiamo detto. Ma Google Map... more
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What's your neighborhood's walk score?
Data visualization star Lee Byron rendered a map of San Francisco that color-codes blocks according to their walk score. How does your neighborhood do? Data visualization star Lee Byron rendered a map of San Francisco that color-codes blocks according to their walk score. How does your... more
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Holiday in my Bedroom
Jamie needs a holiday... he craves those thrills you get when you discover somewhere for the very first time. If only he could experience all that excitement of new encounters without leaving his bedroom... Impossible? Not if he were less than an inch tall... Jamie needs a holiday... he craves those thrills you get when you discover somewhere for the very first time. If only he could experie... more
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Google Earth: The Best Show on Earth
What links a 14-stone mastiff from Bournemouth, my parents' sun umbrella, a Chinese military base and a 87,500-square-foot image of fast-food mascot Colonel Sanders laid out in the Nevada desert? The answer is that they can all be seen by anyone on the planet, without leaving their desk, thanks to the miracle of Google Earth.
Google Earth, and its sister product Google Maps, offer an interactive map of the world, stitched together from aerial and satellite footage licensed from bodies such as Nasa and various private companies (the shots of Britain are mostly around two years old). You start with a bird's-eye view of your home nation, then zoom in and in, looking for details that catch the eye.
It's a marvelous toy, which is perhaps why it's been downloaded more than 400 million times. But it has been put to some pretty weird uses. People hunt out the bizarre and unusual: a naked sunbather in Holland, a town fountain shaped like a swastika in Belgium.
They manipulate the scenery to advertise or amuse: the KFC painting in Nevada, the giant penis marked out in weedkiller on a Pennsylvania sports pitch, or the oversized obscenities scrawled on a Scottish hayfield and a Russian roof. What links a 14-stone mastiff from Bournemouth, my parents' sun umbrella, a Chinese military base and a 87,500-square-foot image of fa... more -
The Google Maps car gets busted
Somebody got a little too excited about their street view. Why is this picture so hilarious to me?
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Eisenhower Interstate Highway System Decoded
Here's a concise guide to the US highway naming conventions. Was this part of the curriculum in high school Driver's Education and I somehow managed to sleep through it?
Here's a concise guide to the US highway naming conventions. Was this part of the curriculum in high school Driver's Education and I s... more -
Google Maps can run your life
Google has updated its Map service for mobile phones to help give directions to where you want to go by transit as well as walking or in a car.
The Version 2.2 update, which contains features not even available on the desktop version yet, will show information on bus, train and ferry routes, including departure times and even how much the trip will cost.
Where am I?
A person lost in the big city can use the “My Location” function to find themselves, which can be achieved through mobile mast triangulation in the absence of GPS on the unit.
This promises to have benefits in terms of safety, especially late at night in an unfamiliar part of town. Speaking of which, Google Maps will also let you know when the last train/bus/boat home is, so you know how late you can party.
The service is mainly available in North America now, though Google says it can be used in “over 50 countries.” Google has updated its Map service for mobile phones to help give directions to where you want to go by transit as well as walking or ... more -
Map of humanity: one of the most amazing things I've ever seen
just look at the picture. it's fairly large. it's amazing. I don't even know what to say.
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The History of the Middleast in 90 seconds.
Compared to the enormity and thousands of years of history, America is only a blip on the radar in the history of the Middleast. With all the wars and empires, what do we think we're going to accomplish over there that many, many countries and empires haven't tried to do already, besides drain our own resources and put the country deep into debt? Compared to the enormity and thousands of years of history, America is only a blip on the radar in the history of the Middleast. With... more
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The importance of 1993
The Wired has published a beautifully complicated map to show how ideas and events of 1993 created the world we live in today. Power Rangers included.
The Wired has published a beautifully complicated map to show how ideas and events of 1993 created the world we live in today. Power R... more -
OpenStreetMap - Giving Maps back to the people
"OpenStreetMap (OSM) creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways."
While GoogleMaps, GoogleEarth, traditional maps and everything else you can find on the web is in some form restricted in its usage, this project has an enormous potential to change the face of mapping forever.
Everybody with a GPS-device can colelct geographical data and integrate it into OSM. The outcome is a high resolution street map with every imaginable information (different kind of streets, service facilities, etc) attached to it. "OpenStreetMap (OSM) creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started b... more -
Guilty Pleasures: Maps!
With Brett as your guide, get lost in online maps.
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USA National Gas Temperature Map
"Now you can see what gas prices are around the country at a glance. Areas are color coded according to their price for the average price for regular unleaded gasoline." "Now you can see what gas prices are around the country at a glance. Areas are color coded according to their price for the average pr... more
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Google Earth heads to a browser near you
Google today announced the release of a Google Earth API and browser plug-in. Google Earth joins the company's Maps API family, letting developers to turn Websites into 3D map apps.
Among the features being rolled out with the new release are the ability to embed Google Earth into Websites; create polygons, lines, and placemarks in the 3D environment; convert existing Maps API sites to 3D Earth; add or view 3D buildings; and utilize Google Sky's hi-res images, which are stars, planets, and galaxies.
"The Google Maps API, with over 150,000 developer sites, and the Google Earth client, with over 400 million downloads, are both tremendously successful tools to help users visualize this Geoweb of content," said Google in a release issued today. "Now that we have brought the Google Earth API to the developer community, we can only imagine what wonderfully creative new web applications will be developed." Google today announced the release of a Google Earth API and browser plug-in. Google Earth joins the company's Maps API family, lettin... more -
Online Sleuths Find Bizarre Images on Google Maps
It has been a boon to directionally challenged drivers as well as the focus of legal actions raising privacy concerns.
It is Google Maps' Street View, a feature that captures on-the-spot images of streets and landmarks along your driving route, and some of those chance images are odd enough that they have developed a cult following of their own online.
Some of the incredible and bizarre pictures, compiled on sites like Street View Gallery, include a car burning at the side of the road, a man running down the street in scuba gear, a jet flying close overhead and a bikini car wash.
Google collects the images for its Street View feature using cameras strapped to the top of vehicles, and some of the pictures uncovered by Street View sleuths even show the drivers of the Google vehicles paying tolls at interstate exits.
But other images uncovered in Street View are more notable for what is going on around the car. One sequence of images detailed by the Web site Gawker purports to show the many angles of a drug deal going down.
Another seems to show someone aiming a gun at a child, though the weapon reportedly is only a water pistol.
It has been a boon to directionally challenged drivers as well as the focus of legal actions raising privacy concerns. ... more -
Now you can see noise pollution
The government yesterday published online maps which allow users to enter their postcode to find out noise levels in their area. They show the level of environmental noise from airports, industry, and road and rail networks over 24-hour periods or during the night.
The environment minister, Jonathan Shaw, said: "Factors like transport and industry are a necessary part of modern life. But we need to look at what further practical steps we can take to make people's lives more tranquil. These maps provide the most comprehensive snapshot yet of noise in our country, all at the click of a mouse.
"We will use them to draw up action plans to reduce noise where practical from major roads and railways, as well as urban areas. The plans will include measures to protect designated quiet areas from any increase in noise."
But Peter Wakeham, director of the Noise Abatement Society, said: "What the maps don't have are football stadiums, nightclubs, military training ranges. If you live near Wembley it's terrible at the weekend. The maps need to be validated. At the moment they're just computer projections, not sound level recordings. At least they recognise there's a problem."
The maps cover 67,000 miles of road, 3,000 miles of railway and the areas around 18 airports. The website also includes the number of people exposed to noise levels. The areas covered are: Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Coventry, Hull, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, Southend, Teesside, the Potteries, Tyneside, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.
Do you think noise pollution is dangerous enough to warrant measures such as these noise maps? The government yesterday published online maps which allow users to enter their postcode to find out noise levels in their area. They... more -
Where do all the neurotics live?
Psychologists have shown that human personalities can be classified along five key dimensions: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. And each of these dimensions has been found to affect key life outcomes from life expectancy and divorce to political ideology, job choices and performance, and innovation and creativity.
What's more, it turns out these personality types are not spread evenly across the country. They cluster. And how they cluster tells us much: What city someone might want to move to, the broader character of regions, and even the creative and economic futures of broad swaths of the nation.
Drawing on a database of hundreds of thousands of individual personality surveys compiled by psychologists Jason Rentfrow, Sam Gosling, and Jeff Porter, the team was able to map the distribution of personality types across the United States. The result is a fascinating new way of looking at the country's terrain. Psychologists have shown that human personalities can be classified along five key dimensions: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extro... more -
Pinpoint the crime
"Wikicrimes is a software that allows posting and accessing criminal occurrences in a digital map. For this reason this activity is called crime mapping. The philosophy that drives Wikicrimes is the same as Wikipedia: mass collaboration produces valuable knowledge. That is to say, if everybody participates, the criminal mapping will be made collaboratively and everybody will leverage crime information digitalized in the map. That is the reason for the slogan "Share crime information. Keep safe!".
Wikicrimes is not a project developed by any security institution. In fact it is a project from the citizen to the citizen. It is also important to say that we cannot, neither is our desire, to act as the police. The fact of registering a criminal occurrence in WikiCrimes does not exempt the citizen from registering it with the suitable security institution." "Wikicrimes is a software that allows posting and accessing criminal occurrences in a digital map. For this reason this activity is ca... more -
The first moonwalk, visualized
This is the path Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong took on their very first walk on the moon, overlaid on a soccer field.
More like this at Strange Maps - cool blog:
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/ This is the path Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong took on their very first walk on the moon, overlaid on a soccer field. ... more
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