SkaroffBlog » Maps

Hybrid Mode

Josh — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:28:38 +0000

Very cool. Google introduced Hybrid Mode into their mapping application at some point this weekend. Now in addition to a traditional map view and an overhead satellite view, just click the Hybrid button to see a combination of the two!

The moon is made of people!

Josh — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 18:54:44 +0000

Alright, this time I really am following through on my threat to create a Maps category. This link however, isn’t a third party mashup but courtesy of the smart lads and lasses at Google to celebrate the anniversary of the first moon landing. Check out Google Moon to see imagery of the moon with data on the various lunar landing sites.

Bonus if you can figure out what the moon is really made of.

I’m going back and recategorizing old posts in the Maps section. So keep checking it out as we discover more links.

NYC Subway Gmaps

Josh — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 17:39:54 +0000

It seems like it’s about time to create a Google Maps category here at SkaroffBlog since the interesting links continue to pile up. This one is for all my “peeps” in NYC. onNYTurf presents the Google Map NYC-Subway Hack. One of the more interesting hacks I’ve seen since they overlay the actual routes on the map and provide a route planner/search mechanism.

One of my favorite sources to find these new web phenomena is Delicious and it’s offshoots like Populicious. Wondering what’s new and interesting? Check it out.

gExotica

Josh — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 15:26:32 +0000

If you’ve been reading for a while you know I’m both overly impressed and a bit obsessed with Google and its continually expanding treasure trove of new web technologies. I rave about Gmail (ask me for an invite if you’d like an account), and I love to show off Google Maps to anyone who hasn’t seen it before.

Last week Google released an API for their mapping system. An API is an Application Programming Interface and essentially it allows software developers to tap into all the tools and inner workings of a piece of software or software library. Already it is starting to bear much interesting fruit.

Kokogiak.com has Google Maps Transparencies which allows you to see the standard map superimposed over the satellite imagery. You can control the level of transparency and see how closely the map lines up with the actual geography.
Suramya Tomar created gWifi, an interface to allow you find free WiFi hotspots on top of a gmap.
SueAndPaul.com has the Gmaps Pedometer. Pick your starting point, begin recording, and then double click all the nodes of your travels. It’ll draw your route on the map and even calculate your mileage.

Neat.

I got your cheap gas right here

Josh — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 19:09:06 +0000

Via Blinq, another in the continuing saga of GoogleMaps mashups. Grabbing data from gasbuddy and superimposing it on a map, Ahding.com has the Cheap Gas finder. Cheapest gas right now in Philly is only $1.97 at the Hess on Lancaster Ave. I think I paid $2.11 at the Wawa on Aramingo Ave yesterday.

In tech news, it’s official, Apple is moving to Intel based processors. A few choice highlights from AppleInsider:

INTEL RUMORS TRUE: Jobs says there have been two major transitions for Mac: 68K to PowerPC and then Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. Now it’s time for third transition to Intel-based Macs. Developers will begin to make the transition now. While users can begin to switch next year. Apple is making the move “because we want to make the best computers for our customers.”
Mac OS X has been leading secret double life, Jobs proclaims. Every release of Mac OS X has been built for both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs over the last 5 years. Mac OS X is cross-platform by design. Jobs shows all Mac OS X Tiger running on Intel. All features are already compatible with Intel-based processors. It’s not done yet, but will be put into the developer hands for finishing.
Jobs shows Rosetta: a dymanic binary translator. It runs PowerPC code on Intel-baesd Macs, transparently to the users. It’s pretty fast. Jobs demos Rosetta used to run PowerPC macs on Intel-based Macs –shows Microsoft Excel/Word running on Intel-based Mac (without any porting and/or recompiling). Jobs also shows Photoshop CS2 with all plugins that are translated and run on Intel-based Mac without significant speed decrease.
Jobs introduces Wolfram’s CEO, who said they ported Mathematica 5 to Intel-based Macs in 2 hours. Only about 20 lines of code changed.

Pretty cool stuff. No word yet on whether these chips are definitely x86 based or PowerPC based as Daring Fireball hypothesized or whether or not OS X will run on non-Apple Intel hardware. Either way I’ll be very interested to see what direction Apple moves now with hardware prices, marketing, and potentially spreading the best consumer OS available to other platforms.

GoogleYahooTrafficMaps

Josh — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I posted the other day and briefly mentioned Yahoo’s new traffic RSS feed. If you fed it your city name or zip code it would give you an XML file with current traffic information. Cool, but not that practical for most people. Well now Greg has tied it all together with GoogleMaps. Tell it your zip code, it grabs the traffic data from Yahoo, and overlays it on a Google Map. Zoom in and out and click the traffic warning icons to see the specific data. If I didn’t take the El to and from work I would be using this constantly.

Here’s Philadelphia. New York. San Francisco. Neat.

UPDATE (5/12/05): Apparently Yahoo has disabled the RSS feeds so Greg has moved to data from Traffic.com. I’ve updated the links.