maps – rich text

three days to go!

Rich — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:06:38 +0000

(Not counting today, of course.) Pretty quiet at work now between tapering off and other people’s vacations. I’m feeling pretty lame-duck. People are taking me out to lunch Thursday and Friday, though, so that’ll make those days go by quicker.

I think I’m going to gather up my stuff Thursday and take it home that night, so all I have to do Friday is bring in my laptop and badge and so on and leave empty-handed. I have surprisingly little stuff here.

I rode my bike to work yesterday! I’d been meaning to do so for a while but had always figured it a bit too far, but then I spent four hours riding on a Sunday a while ago and realized it was nothing. Here’s the route I took there and back. In the morning it was only about 18 Celsius out, so once I hit Carling I just followed it the rest of the way, and got to work with half an hour to spare. On the way home the humidex was 32, so I took it a bit slower and followed a bike path through the Greenbelt instead of taking Carling direct.

The ride in was easy, but the air was so thick on the ride home that I felt pretty tired out. I’d really wanted to do it at least once, though, so I’m glad I fit it in before I was done.

Odd thing: I must have encountered at least half a dozen cyclists wearing helmets that hadn’t been produced for ten or fifteen years. Folks, those aren’t even useful for keeping your beer cold now.

I don’t know how often I’ll ride my bike to school next year though. Yesterday I threw jeans and a polo shirt in my bag and showered when I got to work, but it’s less practical when I have to do the same with business casual clothes, with no office, and only for a 2-3h class instead of an 8h day. And with a bus that goes from my door straight to school, I’d rather arrive dry and cool.

and boy are my arms tired

Rich — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:18:38 +0000

Google, how do I get from New York to Paris?

Twittervision

Rich — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:57:33 +0000

While I can’t say I’m a big fan of Twitter, I can’t seem to stop staring at Google Maps mashup Twittervision.

More with Google Maps

Rich — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 14:39:00 +0000

Some more neat Google Maps satellite photos, mostly aviation-related but not all:

Aircraft Boneyard, Davis Monthan Airforce Base, Tucson, AZ
A bunch of neat stuff at Edwards AFB:
- Giant compass rose (with a B-52 at 270° for scale)
- Runway 18/36 on Rogers Dry Lake, ready for a Shuttle landing
- A pair of SR-71 Blackbirds
Launch pads at Kennedy Space Center (and more to the SSW)
Las Vegas Strip

arbitrary thumbtacks on maps.google.com

Rich — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 05:16:00 +0000

Does anyone know how to get Google maps to locate a thumbtack at an arbitrary point on a map? I recall directions from Brevity on how to get it to draw an arbitrary route, which is a nice touch, but I’d like to be able to say “The thing I am talking about is HERE” and have a precise thumbtack regardless of availablilty or precision of street numbering.

area 51, mysterious circles

Rich — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 02:24:00 +0000

Internet discovers irrigation while looking for Area 51. (See the comments of the linked post.)

Someone really needs to convince BoingBoing that those irrigation circles are something mysterious.

Fun with Google Maps

Rich — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 17:58:00 +0000

So Google Maps now has a satellite mode. Now, Americans have had various access to satellite imagery for a while, through
Terraserver and related sites, but good high-resolution coverage
of Canada other than Toronto is pretty rare. But Google has high-res imagery for Ottawa and Montreal, and medium-res for most of Ontario, so here are some mendel places! You might want to zoom in all the way — Google is only letting me zoom most of the way in.

I live in the apartment building in the centre of
this photo. Before that, I lived at the building at the centre of this one. (The sprawling parking lot beside it is the Wal-Mart I used to complain about.)
I work in the square building in the centre of this one. Now, go across the road into the parking lot, take the fourth left along the middle driveway, and note two dark cars beside a white car — one of those dark cars is mine!
Candice and I met somewhere around the middle of this one, and we’re getting married at the middle of this one. You can see a little red spot dead centre there; that’s their awning.
Parliament Hill!
In Montreal, I lived here, but it’s low-res.
When I was in Montreal, I flew the airplanes at the centre of this picture. Someone else is landing right now! (Note that the taxiway beside the runway is well-labeled — it’s remarkably easy to line up on final to the taxiway.
The Big O turned out great in this picture.
One specific for the pilots: What if you built a huge, 2×12,000′-runway airport and nobody came?
For Vancouver folks: The katkam must be in this building.
Niagara Falls!

Man, I’m going to be poking at this for weeks.

Why cities should not let developers name streets

Rich — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 15:17:00 +0000

Here’s one for X-Files fans:

My mother recently moved to a new condo in Orléans, a suburb of Ottawa.
While looking at her new address on Google Maps, I found
these
streets. Very odd.