THIS is so cool you might like it too

[TheNeedForZ]

So my friend(actually my sister's fiancee), came into the room and said "Can I use your computer? I want to show you something"

 

Then he uses my computer, did some searching and downloaded a file called

 

GoogleEarth.exe

 

Then he installed and ran it. There was a earth globe showing on the screen....

 

so what there's a globe on my computer screen?

 

He moves the globe around and zooms in, zooms in, and zooms in, AND ZOOMS IN SOME MORE, until we can see an air base(Edwards) with clear image of fighter planes, B-1 bombers, stealth fighters and f-117(number??Blackbird). Then he finds a naval base and showed me submarines, destroyers and carriers. I liked the clear image but I am no military buff so I wasn't that impressed.

 

Now here comes the shocker :

 

He moves it around and zoomed in on an area; It looked like an civilian residential area. What about it? He said " This is where you guys live, there are no cars on the driveway, so when they took the satellite image, you haven't begun with your restoration project yet"

 

 

!!!!!!!!

 

 

I looked around and everything checked out correct, the cul-de-sac that our house was in, the post office nearby, the grocery store. The streets nearby. I was like "THIS IS SO F***ING AMAZING"

 

Our house was built in 2000, I started my Z car project in August 2004 so the image was taken sometime between that. Resolution is low in some areas like Russia, China, Area 51, and wilderness etc. but I'd say the default resolution is 3 meter x 3 meter(you can tell between a car and a bus)

 

You can download them for free here(be sure to download the free version, you have to pay to use the more advanced versions)

 

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/googleearth/

 

or do a search on "GoogleEarth.exe"

 

Set your screen resolution to 1024x768 to run it. When the image gets tilted(as in you no longer look stright down) hit the "reset tilt" button right next to directional pad. Add "boarder" layer to locate stuff easier.

 

I don't know if this stuff is new, you may already know this but I was shown only today. I got the feeling that earth is really small when you can rotate and zoom it between your palms.

 

HAVE FUN!

[280Zone]

I was amazed at what you could see. If you do not want to download anything just go here.

 

http://maps.google.com/

 

Notice in the upper right of the screen is has "Map" "Satellite" and "Hybrid"

 

I thought maybe if I clicked on the "Hybrid" button it would show where everyone here lives.

[akeizm]

There is a google moon also. It shows you the moon is really full of cheese.

[slownrusty]

Hahaha....wow....very cool...zooming in on my house shows my ZXT!

 

As I am involved in Ortho-photographic mapping, this is identical to the products we use. Neat that this is free though, we pay a fortune for ours.

 

Yasin

[Tim240z]

I used this one all the time....

http://terraserver-usa.com/default.aspx

[mario_82_ZXT]

I found this a while ago, didn't think it was anything special since my house is a blue blob (ultra low resolution).

 

Now for the cool part, go to somewhere like downtown Chicago (Michigan Avenue), the click on buildings and tilt the view.

 

It will render the buildings in 3D and you can do a fly through of the area.

Mario

[BrandonsZ]

It's only a matter of time before they digitize the images from space and form 3-D interactive maps of the world where you can take a walk in your neighborhood from behind the computer screen or whatever optical interface device you will use by then.

[TheNeedForZ]

You mean "the matrix"

[auxilary]

OH yeah? try this:

 

http://moon.google.com

 

and zoom all the way in

[Cody 82 ZXT]

OH yeah? try this:

 

http://moon.google.com

 

and zoom all the way in

 

 

Thats great!!!

[Guest Battle Pope]

That's cheesy... hyuk hyuk

[hat1324]

wont work on Win2k.. gives me a error

[BrandonsZ]

OH yeah? try this:

 

http://moon.google.com

 

and zoom all the way in

 

 

Well, now I owe my Cow-erker a c-note. He absolutely does not think we ever got to walk on the moon. After this, he's clearly true, otherwise they'd have taken chunks of cheese back instead of simple grey rocks. Dang.