OT: A nifty diversion

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George Stolz

George Stolz

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Windsor, CO NEC: 2023
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Hospital Master Electrician
My wife downloaded something yesterday that is probably the coolest way to waste time I could imagine. It's called "Google Earth", and it's like a globe that you can zoom in on.

I typed in my address, and it swoops in from space pretty much on the money every time. I've got dial-up internet access, so it takes a little bit of time for the images to download as you travel, but not as long as it should, for the detail involved.

Yesterday we spent all day hopping from San Francisco to Denver, to Washington DC and New York, Mount Everest, all over the place. It's the neatest effect, when you travel from place to place it's literally like looking through the glass bottom of a spaceship, it's too cool.

We stopped and looked at Denver International Airport, and there are planes lined up for takeoff and parked at their gates, it was neat.

Anyway, this is not electrically related, but I thought it was neat enough to share. Any interesting finds of your own lately? :)
 
georgestolz said:
My wife downloaded something yesterday that is probably the coolest way to waste time I could imagine. It's called "Google Earth", and it's like a globe that you can zoom in on.
Click to expand...

Wasted much time there already. :grin: :cool:

You can also do almost the same with google maps and choose satellite view.

It's not as cool but no download is involved.

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ is also pretty good.
 

Click image to see larger book cover​

Actually, while we're on off-topic diversions, that reminds me. I just finished reading this book and it was a good read. I'd recommend it for anyone wanting an interesting summary of the history of electricity. The first quarter of the book talks about electricity in history prior to Edison, and then it goes into the battle between Edison and Westinghouse regarding the electrical distribution standard.​

Edison backed the distribution of DC power, and Westinghouse saw marketability in AC.​

At one point, there was a reality check for me; the author described the first meeting between Edison and Tesla, and mentioned that Edison was about 32 and Tesla was 28. It struck me that by this point in Edison's career, he'd invented the phonograph, contructed a commercially viable light bulb, and energized a portion of New York with DC power by the time he was 32. Can you imagine?!?
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John, according to the book, Westinghouse was not as big on flash and sizzle as Edison was. As a result, Westinghouse had a measure of obscurity in history, whereas Edison was never forgotten. Of course, Edison's extensive patent record didn't hurt in the history books, either. :D

Edison actually held a press conference to promote his success in perfecting a long-lasting lamp before he had actually succeeded, in the attempt to lure investors to gain the money to perfect the light bulb! I was pretty astounded to read that, can you imagine the guts that took? :)
 
I like Google Earth but I find the images to be rather old. I guess that a subscription service would provide close to real time images. Also you can check out:

http://local.live.com/

The images there are pretty good too.
 
local.live is pretty good...
I also like Yahoo maps(Beta?)

Try this "diversion"....

Load all three maps in different browser windows
Enter the SAME address for all three (preferablly a large construction site)
You can almost "see" the progress.
 
My house, and everything around for miles just shows up as a big green splotch. There's also an odd blurry grey square slightly to the south, right over Camp David ! ;)
 
Checking out some of the sites it appears it depends on what area has the newest pictures.

Local live had a great image of my home but it must be 5 years old.

I checked Gillette stadium and found they had not even broken ground for the New stadium.
 
mdshunk said:
My house, and everything around for miles just shows up as a big green splotch. There's also an odd blurry grey square slightly to the south, right over Camp David ! ;)
Click to expand...


Now your on some list of possible trouble makers. :D
 
iwire said:
I checked Gillette stadium and found they had not even broken ground for the New stadium.
Click to expand...

Is ground broke in reality? ( I don't know that area)


The thing about these mapping sites, I don't believe any of them are actually "live" or are even updated with much frequency.

Looking at the largest building in NJ (30 Hudson Street, Jersey City, NJ)....
Yahoo's image is the oldest...followed by
Google's, which still shows some construction happening, followed by
Local.live, which shows the building at roughly 100% completion.
 
celtic said:
Is ground broke in reality? ( I don't know that area)
Click to expand...

Job is now complete, new stadium open for about 3 or 4 years and the old stadium shown by Local Live is now in some landfill. :)

Here I am complaining :rolleyes: .....this is great look how easy we can now get info.:cool:
 
I looked at my house on local.live.com - only because that site seemed to have the most current pix.
Each direction(NSE&W) was taken at a different time...and 1 shot was taken in a different year (at least 4 -6 months earlier).
I could see:
- my truck parked illegally
- my yard before and after we had concrete and fence work done
- my neighbors pool - but the pix were taken in the fall/winter so no one is in it :)
 
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