Map Art

MAP ART – The artwork

MAP ART – An aerial view of region that the artwork is located

MAP ART – Compare the art to the aerial view

MAP ART – look familiar?

Branding banners for KML files

An interesting observation on the web forum this morning regarding the ability to add branding to KML files for Google Earth resulted in a bit of a quick experimental KML/KMZ creation for locating the KLDC;

This could be very interesting

Documentation available from:
http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/

Everybody loves a road trip!

Everybody loves a road trip is an exhibition at the University of Melbourne, celebrating the driving holiday in Australia. I stumbled across this exhibition on the way to a meeting this afternoon, it is well worth a look if you are in the area.

Everybody loves a road trip! [1]
Leigh Scott Gallery, 1st floor, Baillieu Library, 27 May to 7 August 2009

This exhibition showcases the collection of Shell Company of Australia, which the company donated to the University of Melbourne Archives (UMA) in 2008, in addition to other UMA collections and items on loan from the RACV Heritage Collection. From early in the 20th century the Shell Company of Australia placed a great deal of emphasis on community relations and how the general public perceived its products and the company itself. In Australia there has been a long tradition of exploration of our environment and journeys over vast distances. After World War II this tradition was further reinforced by the growing popularity of motor vehicle ownership and the family road trip. The displays include project albums (to house collections of promotional cards) and other merchandise, posters, advertisements, photographs, documents, calendars, touring maps (including a Braille map of Australia) and tips for drivers. The exhibition is curated by Melinda Barrie, Senior Archivist, Rio Tinto and Business, University of Melbourne Archives.

An accompanying publication is available: Everybody loves a road trip! (exhibtion brochure), University of Melbourne Library, 2009.
– Cultural Collections: Current Exhibitions

Photograph taken by a staff member of the Shell Touring Service and Mapping Unit, c.1947–1960 Shell Company Historical Collection, University of Melbourne Archives

LINKS:
[1] Cultural Collections: Current Exhibitions viewed 23-Jun-2009
[2] Are we there yet? Exhibition explores Aussie tradition of the family road trip viewed 23-Jun-2009 [The Melbourne Newsroom]
[3] The family road trip podcast (2009-Jun-04) [ABC: LifeMatters]

Google Street View avaliable for .au

Google Street view is now available for Australia. The images appear to have a lower resolution than previous countries, this is perhaps to reduce privacy concerns as you cannot zoom into houses.

Watching me, watching you
In December 2007 we photographed the Google-Car and now we can see the photo’s from the Google-Car of us *chuckle*

Just who was stalking who?

OziExplorerCE Development Version 2.03e

OziExplorerCE Dev
I have finally bitten the bullet and moved from OziExplorerCE Dev 2.01 (December 2007) to OziExplorerCE Dev 2.03e ( April 2008 ).

New splash screen

New map interface

* 2.03a – Added ability to load .loc and .gpx geocaching file formats as waypoints.

* Please note that if you have used a previous OziExplorerCE development version it is advisable to delete the OziExplorer2.cfg file as this may activate toolbars, task bars etc which are no longer part of the standard supplied interface so there may be no way to deactivate them.

* A new menubar has been added, this is the main interface for OziExplorerCE and replaces the menu and toolbar.

* Tomtom .ov2 poi files can be loaded.

* number of waypoints has been increased to 10000 – to handle this many waypoints the drawing of waypoints has been changed. Please note that all of the 10000 waypoints will still be processed and displayed, the limitations below apply per screen and don’t affect the usability of the waypoints for normal use.

OziExplorerCE Settings Manager
OziExplorerCE Settings Manager has also been updated to version 2.03d, with the release of Development Version 2.02 ( January 2008 ).

OziExplorerCE
Probably more surprising is that my “production version” that I have been running on the PDA is actually Beta 1.12.3e3 (August 2005) …. just a few versions behind the current Version 2.18 ( 2nd June 2008 ). I think this may need an update *chuckle*. Better late than never?

NOTE: OziExplorerCE – Version 1.12.3 or later – can load the Geoscience Australia NATMAP’s without conversion to the special OziExplorerCE format. The (.map) file and the (.ecw) file for the map are copied to the storage card.

[1] OziExplorer CE – Development Version [OziExplorer]
[2] OziExplorerCE History [OziExplorer]

Geohashing

XKCD comic #426 contains an algorithm that generates random coordinates across the country every day.
These coordinates can be used as destinations for adventures, à la Geocaching. They can also be used for local meetups. — XKCD [2]

-38, 145 (Melbourne, Australia)
Melbourne is 14 hours ahead of NYC so it’s acceptable to use yesterday’s date. [4]

Via the Google Map lookup method using the 1st Eltham Scout Hall as my starting point (-37, 145 );

For date: 2008-05-21
Meetup location:
* -37.179468°, 145.861536° or
* S37°10.768′, E145°51.6921′ or
* S37°10’46.08″, E145°51’41.52″

This puts us in the NE Melbourne graticule (everyone in the same lat/long grid gets the same location);

Of course XKCD have defined Melbourne as -38, 145 so we can plug this into the Atom feed generator to get a Atom Geohash for Melbourne.

Geohash for -38, 145 on 2008-05-21
-38.1794679947,145.861536012

This puts us in the SE Melbourne graticule;

The official xkcd meetups happen every Saturday afternoon at 4:00 PM (local destination time). If the coordinates for your area are in the ocean, a military base, or somewhere otherwise unreachable, that meetup is of course postponed. Unless, of course, you own a boat, are a soldier at said military base, or are James Bond. If you can, record who’s there, take pictures, and post them here. [4]

So, for Melbourne we would use the previous Friday’s Dow opening and the -38, 145 to calculate the Saturday meetup location to make sure we are all going to the same location

If you happen to be looking for somewhere to go, driving to the coordinates can be an adventure. If you do, please take pictures and drop them on the geohashing wiki (feel free to help fill it out). — XKCD blag [5]

[1] Geohashing (2008-May-21) [XKCD]
[2] Map lookup []
[3] Main Page – Geo Hashing [wiki.XKCD]
[4] Melbourne, Australia – Geo Hashing [wiki.XKCD]
[5] Geohashing (2008-May-21) [blog.XKCD]
[6] Melbourne meet-up? [forum.XKCD]

Google Earth 4.3

On the Google Earth team, we’re big fans of Earth Day, so much so that we couldn’t hold out until it arrives next week to release our latest labor of love: Google Earth 4.3. With this version, we have completely rethought how you might interact with the 3D world. We’ve redesigned the navigation to make it much easier to fly from the heavens down to the streets of your town. And with all of the great user-created buildings in the 3D Warehouse, we wanted to make it easy for you to get right up close to see the rich detail. — (2008-Apr-16) GoogleBlog

New! in Google Earth 4.3 (beta)
* Photo-realistic buildings from cities around the world
* Dawn to dusk views with the Sunlight feature
* Swoop navigation from outer space to street-level

On the Google LatLong Blog in the post Introducing Google Earth 4.3, Peter Birch goes into a lot more detail of the new features.

Changed navigation controls

NOTE: Google Earth 4.3 is still a beta

[1] A whole new world to explore (2008-Apr-16) [GoogleBlog]
[2] Introducing Google Earth 4.3 (2008-Apr-16) [Google LatLong Blog]
[3] Watch the Sunset From Google Earth 4.3 (2008-Apr-16) [Wired]
[4] Google Earth 4.3 Offers a Number of New Features (2008-Apr-17) [SlashDot]
[5] Swoop from space to the streets in Google Earth 4.3 (2008-Apr-16) [Google LatLong Blog]
[6] Touch down on the Earth’s surface with Street View (2008-Apr-16) [Google LatLong Blog]
[7] 3D buildings galore (2008-Apr-16) [Google LatLong Blog]

Google Street View in Melbourne

Google-branded cars with roof-mounted cameras have just begun traversing our streets, taking highly detailed panoramic street-level photos for a new Maps feature called Street View. — SMH (2007-Nov-23)

And so it was to be, at 16:00 hours 28-Dec-2007 we spotted the Google Car on Victoria Parade in Melbourne

Mounted on the roof on top of the pole and in the red casing is the camera, the GPS is mounted below and to the rear. The driver has a LCD monitor mounted in the passenger seat; and quite a bit of junk in the back seats

Cameras mounted on top of “Google labelled” cars, will travel around Australian cities and towns, pausing to take a 360 degree photo, record the location of the image using a GPS, and then move to the next location.
The images will be collected throughout summer and are likely to appear online in the second half of next year. — Cnet (2007-Nov-26)

[Also see Google Street View avaliable for .au (2008-Aug-05)]

My next tableware will be …

Topoware is a tableware collection that questions the landscape of dining. Taking inspiration from the recent popularity of geography as a media of communication (with Google maps) and more specifically with topographic maps, which define heights of a landscape two dimensionally, Topoware in turn, “outlines” the dining experience.

Made up of cups, plates, bowls, placemats and a tablecloth, the collection explores the visual and social landscape of dining by using outlines and descriptions to describe, question and push our eating experience, making it really feel like a journey.

Topographical dining

OziExplorer-3D

 

3D/Elevation [1]

• 3D and Elevation options available when OziExplorer3D (separate product) is installed.
• works with both registered and unregistered OziExplorer and OziExplorer3D. (the unregistered limitations of each apply)
• most common formats of height/elevation data supported – SRTM, GTopo30, GLOBE, DTED, GridAscii (to use the 3D/Elevation features, height data for the map region is required)
• has the ability to download SRTM height data for the region of map being viewed
• view the elevation under the mouse cursor
• view a map profile along a track or map section
• create a 3D view of a map (requires OziExplorer3D to view the 3D map)

–

OziExplorer 3D – Sources of Digital Height Data [2]
Note: OziExplorer version 3.95.4j or later has the ability to download SRTM height data for the region of map being viewed so manual downloading through the FTP site shown below is not required. The SRTM Download option is on the 3D/Elevation Menu. (OziExplorer3D must be installed for this menu to be visible.)

The Results:

OziExplorer-3D map of Eltham (VIC)
(Click to enlarge)

OziExplorer-3D map of Sydney Harbour (NSW)
(Click to enlarge)

OziExplorer-3D map of the Blue Mountains (NSW)
( Click to Enlarge )

 

[1.] OziExplorer – Features [OziExplorer]
[2.] OziExplorer 3D – Sources of Digital Height Data [OziExplorer]
[3.] GPS & OziExplorer [ ]