googleworld - A collection of Maps, Earth & Street View. Why bother seeing the world for real? on Collected

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google earth twitpic -rt - Twitter Search 3 Sep 2010, 12:07 am CEST

The view from Google Earth at 1800 HRS. Earl approaching US. TS Fiona at his tail.

olzord:

google earth twitpic -rt - Twitter Search 2 Sep 2010, 11:24 pm CEST

My dad is on google earth standing outside his factory giving them two fingers hahahahah!

tweedleV:

google earth twitpic -rt - Twitter Search 2 Sep 2010, 8:31 pm CEST

Damn google Earth! You are spot on!

For shame!

StreetViewFun - Funny google maps street view 2 Sep 2010, 5:50 pm CEST

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New commenting system for files

Google Earth Hacks blog 2 Sep 2010, 4:33 pm CEST

The system we have been using for file comment was hand-built years ago, and really it was rather crude. To simplify things, we’ve just implemented the Comment system using the Facebook JavaScript SDK. This system looks nicer, and should be much easier to use. When viewing any file on the site, just scroll down and you’ll see the comment box.

Here are a few examples of it on the site.

Some test comments, so you can see how they look:

When you post, you have the option to have the comment appear on your profile. While we certainly encourage this, you can turn it off if you’ll be leaving a lot of comments on files so that you don’t clutter up your Facebook stream:

If comments had been left for a file using the previous system, we’ve included a link to those so you can still view them:

Lastly, we know that some of you don’t use Facebook and have no desire to, and that’s perfectly fine. If you’re not logged in to Facebook, you can still leave a comment without any problems.

So there you have it. If you have any thoughts, questions or problems, please let us know.

Thanks!

Mickey

Post from: Google Earth Hacks blog
New commenting system for files

pnendick:

google earth twitpic -rt - Twitter Search 2 Sep 2010, 3:59 pm CEST

Why on earth is Google encouraging people to use AIM in gtalk? Odd!

Let’s go to the beach

StreetViewFun - Funny google maps street view 2 Sep 2010, 2:26 pm CEST

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Distilleries of Islay

Google Sightseeing 2 Sep 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Fans of single-malt scotch whisky associate single malts from the Isle of Islay in Scotland with bold and peaty flavors. Not every whisky produced on the island is heavily peated, but that’s the signature flavour of the distilleries along the southern coast. The Isle of Islay is located on the Western edge of Scotland, just north of the sea barriers of Ireland, yet it is the southernmost of the Hebrides. Islay is home to eight active distilleries (with a ninth in production) and whisky tourism plays a major role in the economy of the island.

Google Street View offers glimpses of some of the most-famed distilleries in the world, while also providing some sense of the land—and water—that makes their products so unique. Also, some of these distilleries have top-notch signage and branding.

Let’s start with my own personal favourite: Laphroaig. Unfortunately, the Street View car committed the brutal error of not turning down the path onto the distillery grounds, but you can clearly see the distillery sign.

Should you find yourself on the Isle of Islay: make that turn!

Less than a kilometre to the East is the famed Lagavulin. I would say that Lagavulin is my favourite single-malt, but a bottle of Lagavulin 16 year (at least in the U.S.) costs more than twice the price of a bottle of Laphroaig 10 year—and that’s just not practical for some of us working folk. Luckily, Lagavulin is right on the main road (A846) and we can see much of the grounds:

And the distillery sign on the building:

And a tour of the distillery in progress:

Just a kilometre to the east of Lagavulin is the Ardbeg distillery. It’s also not right on the main road, but we can get a pretty good view of it—complete with grazing sheep, chimneys, and the sea.

And here’s the sign for the distillery:

The main inlet of the Isle of Islay is the Loch Indaal. On the southeastern shore of the Loch, we find Bowmore, the capital of the island and home to one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland. It’s still a relatively small operation:

And here’s the distillery gate:

On the northern coast of Loch Indaal is a recently revived distillery: Bruichladdich (pronounced Brook-laddie). Bruichladdich has maybe the best distillery sign in the world:

Look at that still! Looking directly across the street from Bruichladdich provides an excellent view of Loch Indaal.

On the eastern shore of Islay, near Port Askaig, we find the distilleries of Caol Ila and Bunnahabhain. Caol Ila is right on the water and from the street we can see their excellent distillery sign, complete with oak barrel:

Bunnahabhain is situated in an ecologically rich area, and the distillery has a beautiful view of the sound and the Isle of Jura:

The Kilchoman distillery is way over on the western shore of Islay, the most westerly distillery in Scotland. It’s also one of the newest, having been founded in 2005. You can barely see the distillery from the road.

If you’re in the neighborhood, the small town of Kilchoman is also home to a spectacular old graveyard and abandoned church.

The newest distillery on Islay is in Port Charlotte. The project is owned by Bruichladdich and they are taking a serious approach to perfecting their craft with the new distillery.

Each of the whisky-producing regions of Scotland is full of history and unique geography. The Isle of Islay and its peaty whiskies are just one of the many wonders of Scotland’s whisky industry.

Locations: Scotland / Categories: Buildings, Natural Landmarks, Street Views

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3D sounds with the Google Earth Plug-in

Google Earth Blog 2 Sep 2010, 2:05 pm CEST

Paul over at PlanetInAction is at it again. The man that brought us Ships and Helicopters has a new toy for us to play with. This is more of tech demo than a game, but it's quite impressive.

He's simply calling it a 3D sound demo. Here is a brief video of it in action:

You can read the full write-up on his site, but here's the basics of it:

sound3D manages a collection of soundSource objects that have knowledge of the location they are at. A soundSource has a collection of channels. Each channel represents a sound file with associated falloff range. Outside this range the channel can not be heard.

Multiple sound channels per sound source enables you to use different sounding audio files for nearby and far away. The "far" file should sound more muffled and have a longer falloff range. These audio effects can be prepared in a sound editor such as Audacity.
The helicopter on the beach is a great example showing how this works. Move in close and notice how the engine sounds louder but also sharper.

Be sure to check out the PlanetInAction site for more info.