Really, I'm not a stalker...
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
You need a life. Seriously.
But secretly, I'm jealous that you posted this first. Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Ha! I see him right now! In the corner, partway under that trellis in front of the italian restaurant!
Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :
Let me just say for the record, as the starter of the gmail invitation thread as well, that I love Google.
They just keep coming out with cooler and cooler stuff.
For Free.
The software for these maps used to cost $30.
Posted by LilBee91 (Member # 7475) on :
Oooh...what one do you think is his house? Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
WOW! That's awesome!
I found my house! It zooms right in! I'm going to find where I am now! Wow!
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
We're looking at that map and we have found our house. In fact, I'm in the back yard, sunning myself. Unfortunately, I'm in the shade, so you can't see me. No, wait, that's "fortunately." Plus, it's so embarrassing to fall alseep while tanning yourself and wake up in the shade.
Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
I was planning to drive up to Greensboro and haunt all the restaurants he'd mentioned in his columns until I spot him.
If we set up tents on your lawn, you won't get a restraining order, will you? Because those are kind of rude.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
This is Greensboro NC. If you sleep on my lawn, you'll drown as the groundwater rises to cover you.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
So instead of tents, we'll need canoes? *takes notes*
Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
We could build rafts. I'll be Huck and you can be Jim!
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
It has no idea what to do with Sri Lanka. It found Vancouver, British Columbia fine. Queen Elizabeth Park is exactly where I left it.
It found Norman Wells, North West Territories which, I will admit, surprised me. It didn't have enough detail to see where my sister used to live, though. But you can see the barges approaching town, and the gas islands - what looks like civilization on the islands in the middle of the Mackenzie River are all oil wells or the like. No houses, nothing. Just oil.
Which brings back a memory. The summer I went up to visit my sister when they lived there, we took a boat trip up the Mackenzie River. We being my sister, her husband, her daughter, her son, and her husband's brother. The boat was newly acquired, so they didn't know yet at that point the extent of repairs or maintenance that would be required on the boat.
That last sentence is called foreshadowing, in case you missed it.
We had plans of heading up to Fort Good Hope, about 30 miles or so further north along the river. The river, by the way, empties into the Arctic Ocean.
Well, we had problems. The engine ended up sputtering out and dying. We were intending to be back home that evening (we left fairly early in the morning), but with all the engine problems, we burned through gas about four times faster than we should have.
We ran out of gas.
Sometime late that afternoon, a barge passed by. Well, this is a mighty wide river, and even in August, it can get chilly that far north. The river isn't used enough that you can be cavalier about things like people asking for help on the side of the river, despite the fact that this river is the main means of transport in the north when there's no ice on it. I mean, in the day and a half that we were out, we saw one barge and one boat.
So this barge is going past, sees us, and brother in law and brother in law in law hold us gas cans - universal signal for "we have no gas". The barge turned around while it sent out a boat to deliver gas to us - 2 cans. When the boat got back, the barge turned around again and continued on its merry way.
The testosterone-enhanced individuals among us got the boat started again, and we continued on our merry way. Until we ran out of gas again.
The other adults in the crowd were in, shall we say, a foul mood. I didn't care so much. I mean, sure, inconvenienced, but heck, I'd have a story to tell for years. My niece was 12 at the time, so what does it matter to her? My nephew was 8 months old. He was hungry.
I should also mention that my sister, like all of us in our family, packed with emergencies in mind. We were supposed to be gone for lunch only, but she brought enough food along that we were okay. Well, not well-fed or anything - we got hungry. But starving? No. The hot chocolate ended up going completely to nephew - the formula ran out too fast and my sister was already weaning him. My sister also brought along spare jackets, blankets, and things like that. So, inconvenienced, yes. In trouble, no.
We ended up having to sleep in the boat with tarps propped up for a roof. Well, it works. I slept in the front of the boat under the steering wheel with my niece while the various other adults slept either across the seats or on the floor. All in all, not comfortable. Not at all comfortable.
The next morning, it was decided that the brother in law in law, being the fastest of the lot of us, would run into town (Norman Wells, that is, and about 15 or 20 km away) while the rest of us pulled the boat to the head of the island we thought we were on. A few kilometres of hauling the boat, and we realized that we were on the shore, not an island, so we stopped hauling and parked ourselves.
Sometime later that morning or perhaps early afternoon, a boat goes by. It sees us, it approaches us, and we all get in, hoping that he can take us to Norman Wells. No go. He was moving from Fort Good Hope to Norman Wells and had a lot of heavy boxes, including his big screen tv on board, and it couldn't take all of us. So sister and baby went while the rest of waited at the boat.
Eventually, the guy came back with gas cans. A whole lotta gas cans. My sister, who worked at a place that also sold gas, got her boss to open up shop so she could buy fuel and sent it back to us with the guy on the boat. He happily did, refusing to allow us to pay for his fuel. We had no idea where brother in law in law was - sister hadn't seen him on the way back.
After we got the gas loaded up on the boat, we headed back to Norman Wells, and who do we see, but brother in law in law in his single engine airplane flying overhead, making sure we were okay.
Turns out, he got to town after my sister had already sent the fuel back, and headed back to make sure we were okay. He followed us all the way back home, as did the guy with the moving boat.
We found out after the fact that we had travelled far enough - before turning around - along the Mackenzie River that we had made it as far as the Arctic Circle. Woohoo!
[/seriously long derail]
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
You know you have nice fans when being stalked is a big joke.
Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :
There's definitely a lot of stuff out there. BTW, you can't zoom in too close, and if you switch to the regular, non-satellite, map view, it's easier to tell where you are.
Added: Here's a link to an airstrip in this same area. If you zoom in real close, you can acually see an airplane on the strip.
[ April 05, 2005, 07:42 AM: Message edited by: peterh ]
Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
Neat. Here’s the megalopolis of Grafton, WV . You can see the Tygart Dam at the bottom of the pic. I live about a mile and a half down the river from the dam on the left of the river, but on river side of the road. You can see KC (my husky, chasing some ducks) on the river banks of my backyard. I’m out on my run which basically follows the river on the other side of my house loops around through town and back along the river on the other side after the second bridge then back to my house. It’s a really nice 7 mile loop. Fun!
Posted by Jordache Dailey (Member # 7699) on :
of course you cant zoom in they dont want you seeing the alien craft! i mean DUH!
Posted by prolixshore (Member # 4496) on :
I wonder how old these maps are? My apartment complex only shows up as a construction site, but it has been finished for about 9 months. Pretty cool though.
--ApostleRadio
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
I hadn't noticed the satellite feature before. That's really cool. And I love that you can click and drag to move around.
I wonder how much longer Google can keep getting things right? They have to mess up sooner or later, don't they? Or is that just an Apple thing?
Posted by Cow-Eating Man (Member # 4491) on :
I don't know. So far I've been able to zoom in on military bases and nuclear power plants much closer than my own house. That seems wrong.
edit: twinky, I think it's a new feature.
[ April 05, 2005, 10:39 AM: Message edited by: Cow-Eating Man ]
Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :
I can't find my house. I follow the big road nearby, and then lose it in the fuzzy parts of the map.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Wow. Greensboro is really green in that photo.
I google-mapped my house awhile back. But it took it quite awhile to get it right. Not real good with the rural areas.
If they had an option where I could enter "Township 25, Section 12, Range 3 west" it would probably get it -- but they don't.
Farmgirl
Posted by Gryphonesse (Member # 6651) on :
okay, that was FUN...
I KNEW our neighbors two houses over had a pool...
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
I'm in my accounting class at school and we are all having fun finding our houses, the school, etc. Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
The pictures of Madison I'm looking at right now are several months old - the quonset hut is still intact behind the Education building (where I currently am and work).
Otherwise this is a lot of fun. It's making me not work Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I played with this service last year. If you download the Keyhole demo program you can get more detailed, zoomed maps, angle them for a fly-over view, zoom along the coast, lots of creepy fun. Had a ball sending friends satellite photos of their yards...
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
We had a lot of fun last night finding my husband's work, then finding the remote lot, and trying to figure out when the picture was taken based on the number of cars in the lot, then looking up the houses of everyone we know...
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
I wish I had a better memory. I looked at some of the places I lived growing up and couldn't find my house. Posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :
I cant use it. I'm on a mac using IE
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
If that's OS X, stop using IE right now because Mac IE is a piece of trash, and use Safari, Firefox, or OmniWeb instead.
If that's OS 9, ditto, but your only choice is really Firefox.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Quid, your derail story was like reading the Canadian version of Three Men in a Boat, one of my favorite books. I can imagine that the adventure wasn't much fun, but reading about it sure was!
Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :
they don't zoom in close enough in my city to do any good. Posted by fiazko (Member # 5812) on :
Me either, but then I'm from a "town" that might as well be a very large village. I have found my old house on some other sites. This one's too blurry. Oh well.
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
If I search for my house, they put it on the wrong side of the street. But I can find it if I just look for it.
And, holy cow, Greensboro is green!
Posted by Susie Derkins (Member # 7718) on :
Grr. Not enough data to zoom in on my town. Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
Susie:
That's because your town doesn't exist. You have to produce data in order for data to be collected and show up.
-------
Sorry, but as a former resident of a very small town, I find small town jokes amusing. Posted by Susie Derkins (Member # 7718) on :
What if I went outside and waved? Would that be data?
I also just "drove" from Bozeman, Montana to Salt Lake City with my mouse. It was surreal.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Jeniwren - it wasn't not fun at the time. I was up there for an adventure. I mean, how many people have ever been to a town so remote that the nearest doctor is a one hour flight away by jumbo jet or four hours by 2 engine milk run planes? How many people have been to the only international airport in the world without any security of any kind? Or where staff grow potatoes and other veggies on the runway side of the fence at the airport?
Norman Wells has a fossil hunt every year because of the open fossil beds.
As far as the boat incident on the river, I was fine. I had fun. Just the other adults who didn't. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed reading about it. I enjoyed writing about it. Posted by Jaiden (Member # 2099) on :
Dude, I see the LDS church behind my house, but I can't see my exact house
Posted by JaneX (Member # 2026) on :
The image of my college must be several years old. The campus center isn't there yet.
I can see my residence house, though!
~Jane~
Posted by pajeba (Member # 5656) on :
This is cool too. A lot of the photos are fairly old though.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
In the picture of San Francisco, right on the top of Nob Hill, I saw Tony Bennett's heart.
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
Ha ha. You can see my house before it was there.
Posted by Khavanon (Member # 929) on :
I can see my front yard... in significantly better condition than I keep it. And there's my neighbor's bit of perfection, brown and crusty. Take that, Mario!
Posted by Goo Boy (Member # 7752) on :
I was going to link to terraserver myself, but pajeba beat me to it. The pictures are older, but you can zoom in closer.
Posted by no. 6 (Member # 7753) on :
LOL!
Man, OSC is funny these days!
Posted by Susie Derkins (Member # 7718) on :
quote:In the picture of San Francisco, right on the top of Nob Hill, I saw Tony Bennett's heart.
Ah.... that makes so much sense! I had always thought he left his harp in Sam Clam's Disco.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
"In the picture of San Francisco, right on the top of Nob Hill, I saw Tony Bennett's heart."
A likely story, Mr. Card. Weren't those little cable cars climbing halfway to the stars blocking your view?
Posted by definitelynotvichysoisse (Member # 7559) on :
The Satellite maps won't work for me. The regular ones work just fine but when I switch to satellite view it just looks greyish brown. None of the buttons appear to work either. What am I doing wrong?
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
I think it is getting hit pretty hard right now (the server) because I can get some sites, but not others -- and on those, it will just say "loading kh.google.com in the status bar. But if I zoom out, I can pull it up.
I think lots of people just found it and are overtaxing it (like my boss is right at the moment)
FG
Posted by esl (Member # 3143) on :
What's your favorite road? My brother might go to the University in Hayward next year..
Here's a Chris Bridges-esque column about google maps
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
It found Vancouver, British Columbia fine. Queen Elizabeth Park is exactly where I left it. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Grumble]](graemlins/grumble.gif)
But you can see the barges approaching town, and the gas islands - what looks like civilization on the islands in the middle of the Mackenzie River are all oil wells or the like. No houses, nothing. Just oil.![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)