Two things to mess with
Sunday April 17, 2005 at 3:48 pm | Filed under On the Web
One fun and one useful. First off, the fun one, and maybe even useless. UGO has this Super Hero Generator thing where you can build your very own Comic Book super hero. I decided to make a goofy dude, check it out, his name is Super Rocket Guy! He was born on a distant planet called “Equin” and came to Earth as a young boy. Equinians are very technologically advanced and all have these cool rocket backpacks. But the twist is that when Super Rocket Guy (SRG to his fans) grew up he learned he had an uncanny telepathic connection to Earth horses. SRD travels the globe, rushing to the aid of horses and man but secretly battles with an inner conflict when he realizes that the emissions from his rocket backpack is accelerating the deterioration of Earth’s ozone layer and will spell doom to mankind within years. This is the plight of Super Rocket Guy.
The other thing that is way cool and actually useful is an addition to Google Maps that I talked about awhile back. You can take any map and turn it into a Satellite photo! You can even apply driving directions to the satellite photos like in this example where I plotted a road trip from LA to NY! (2,846 mi, about 1 day 17 hours, by the way). Anyway, it’s really fun to check out landmarks with the Satellite mode, here are some to start you off. When viewing these, to get your bearings, click the “Map” link in the top right of the page, then go back to Satellite to see the perty picture.
Devil’s Tower
Niagra Falls
Ground Zero, NY
Warner Studios, CA (can anyone find their house in this one?)
Angels Stadium (apparently Supercross was there then or something)
Disneyland Resort
This thing is catching on and is called “Google Sightseeing” and there are actually some sights out there with a ton more linked.
No Responses to “Two things to mess with”
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Jason Says:
April 17th, 2005 at 5:34 pmThat’s pretty cool. I was, however a little bumbed that you can’t zoom in any closer. I found another one a while back:
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
I can see my kids’ plastic kiddie pool in my backyard on that one. Hmmm…. Microsoft has detailed aerial photos of my house. Well, I’m off to put another layer of tinfoil on my hat, switch to linux, and design a super hero. -
Joe Says:
April 17th, 2005 at 6:50 pmWow, I haven’t played with terraserver in awhile. I think before Microsoft bought it. It has some cool features alright. Including dates for when the photos were taken.
I found this old post that I had about the terraserver!
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Jon Says:
April 18th, 2005 at 9:36 amThe Google photo of my neighborhood is about 2 – 2.5 years old. And you know… that makes a big difference where we are with the explosive growth going on. Since the photo was taken, two shopping centers, a school, a huge park and several subdivisions have been built. If someone were using this to find our Home Depot that’s been open for more than a year, they’d just see a big green field. Ha!
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Arlen Says:
April 18th, 2005 at 12:58 pmI dig the satellite photos; can live without the super hero generator. He has a nice predicament, though–reminds me of the plight of the “liberated” wage-earning woman. If she wants a family, she has to hire another woman to take care of her kids, putting her in a position she’s supposedly liberated herself from.
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Monique Says:
April 18th, 2005 at 5:14 pmShe could always hire a male nanny, putting a man in a position she’s liberated herself from.
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Arlen Says:
April 18th, 2005 at 8:17 pmI haven’t looked around for male nannies recently. Are they easy to find? Point is, of course, SOMEBODY’S got to be “tied down” with the kids.