November 14, 2009 @ 4:08 pm
Theme Park Maps is a website that collects various versions of maps from as many amusement parks as possible. Their collection is rather extensive and the earliest map they have on file is one from 1931. This is certainly a good way to waste your time this weekend. [via]
June 23, 2009 @ 5:18 pm
Billy Rennekamp made this looping video of a highway clover from Google Streetview. If you’re curious, the highway here is I-265 to I-71 (and back again…and so on and so forth). [via]
February 7, 2009 @ 5:43 pm
Just a couple of days ago, Google launched Google Latitude, a new feature for Google Maps on your mobile device that allows you to know where your friends are and also let your friends know where you are at all times. Google Latitude uses the cellphone signal of your mobile device (or GPS if your phone has it) to pinpoint where you are and it then shows that location on a map to whoever you choose to show that information to.
A lot of people have called it a new form of stalking, but I strongly disagree. I think it’s just another step in the direction toward a more connected sphere of friends (something I think will inevitably happen whether people like it or not) and if you’re friends with these people, having them know where you are (and vice versa) can’t be anything other than good! As more and more of my friends get connected through this service, I can only think of the great potential for location-based services to thrive.
I’m eagerly awaiting further development of Google Latitude. Maybe somebody will think of a clever way to make a city-wide game out of this or to offer more ways to connect to friends once you know where they are (immediately call them, PING them, set up warning messages, etc.).
Anyway, if you want to check out where I am, go to iGoogle.com and add the Google Latitude gadget to the page and then find me in your contacts. If you see me on the map, you’ll know that I allowed you that privilege of information. :)
February 6, 2009 @ 9:21 am
I wasn’t aware that Google’s servers could be overloaded. I always thought that they were impenetrable because they were simply Google. I guess I’ll have to wait a bit before I see the image of the house on fire.
January 15, 2009 @ 8:44 pm
Google Maps has shown public transportation stops for a while in New York City (and…if I remember correctly, some other cities as well), but now they are taking it one step further and offering public transportation layers that show routes and stops in the colors that they are meant to be shown in.
So far, the list of cities is pretty extensive. These are the cities that now offer public transportation layers in Google Maps:
Belo Horizonte, Berlin, Bordeaux, Brasilia, Cairo, Capetown, Caracas, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dallas, Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Ekaterinburg, Essen, Frankfurt, Genoa, Guadalajara, Hamburg, Helsinki, Johannesburg, Kazan, Köln, Lille, Lisbon, London, Lyon, Madrid, Marseille, Medellin, Mexico City, Melbourne, Monterrey, Montreal, Munich, Naples, Nizhniy Novgorod, Oslo, Paris, Perth, Portland, Porto, Porto Alegre, Prague, Pretoria, Recife, Rennes, Rio de Janeiro, Samara, San Francisco, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Tunis, Vienna, Warsaw.
The new public transportation layer accompanies photos, Wikipedia entries, and video layers available in most locations in Google Maps.
But seriously, why isn’t New York City there? I bet some stupid State Government red tape is preventing Google from displaying these maps. I wouldn’t be surprised if NYS/NYC wanted money from Google for showing these on Google Maps.
UPDATE: It looks like Google Maps has taken down the Melbourne public transportation layer. Who knows why.
December 17, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
New York State Senator Andrew J. Lanza is planning on introducing legislation that would call for Staten Island to secede from the City of New York. The threat to secede from the city comes from the fact that an increasing amount of Staten Islanders feel like they are paying high taxes for city services that they do not even benefit from (like mass transit).
A similar bill had been introduced and voted on 15 years earlier but no action was taken beyond the vote despite the vote being in favor of separating from the city.
I personally don’t think it will ever happen, but if it does, map makers will be making lots of money in selling new maps of New York City that don’t include Staten Island.
