Wednesday, September 27, 2006

NASA World Wind

While I'm all for Google Earth (if you don't have it, go get it!), NASA, in a case of Your Tax Dollars at work, (yes, the organization that seems to keep messing up on a huge scale) has an interesting alternative called World Wind. World Wind is free to download, but only for Windows (point GEarth). The initial setup file is about 60M but since you basically need broadband to use it anyway, this shouldn't be a big deal. One huge advantage World Wind has over GEarth in this respect is that if you want to you can download Data Packs so you don't have to stream from the net. These files are huge, but would be great if you have a friend with a fast Internet connection but don't have one yourself. You can download World Wind data here (Scroll down past the archive.org ads). As if it weren't enough to have great imagery of the Earth, World Wind also comes with a Mars version and a Moon version in addition to the normal Earth version and a "Sky Survey" program. You can also view a number of other planets from the File menu (Jupiter, Venus) Google Earth has more high-res pictures (in the areas I checked) and has wider support for 3D models and roads, but that is where it's advantages end. World Wind has a lot of options, including those to turn on or off Lat/Long lines, the compass and various markers. It can also import .kml files from Google Earth. World Wind displays the current Cloud Cover (also possible with GEarth beta4 with a .kml). The feature that I think really sets World Wind apart from the alternatives is the wide variety of maps available. You can view imagery from a variety of different cameras simply by clicking their buttons (to turn them on and off, data can be layered), including various cameras on the LandSat7. One option I really like is the option to replace the images with USGS topographic maps. These maps are good scans and look very good. They can be zoomed to some extent (as you zoom different resolution maps are displayed) and look very good though they take some time to load. If you want them, there are also a number of Scientific options that I haven't had a chance to play with yet.

At any rate, I recommend you try both Google Earth and World Wind. Both work very well and are great for a variety of uses, though each has some distinctive advantages. If you want some KML files to play with check out the Google Earth Community site and the Google Earth blog.

On a side note, I have been noticing that NBC has been using Google Earth from time to time while reporting, so it must be good ;-)

Enjoy your evening and Happy Mapping

Monday, September 25, 2006

Free Education (Online)

Just a quick link tonight, browsing before going to bed I noticed that Lifehacker has a collection of free courses available on college websites and around the web. Worth looking into further when/if I have some spare time. If your bored, take a look here and comment if you find anything interesting.  I know there at least used to be some lectures from various colleges on Google Video as well.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Wikimapia

I stumbled on the Wikimapia website today, while looking for a map of a local map, and thought it an interesting idea. The basic idea is a cross between Google Maps and a Wiki. The page is a simple fullscreen interface to Google Map data which allows you to simply label interesting places, either on the satellite imagery or on the road map. There are some buttons on the top right hand corner of the page, which I found slightly hard to find at first to label places. Labels show up as boxes which provide information when you click them.

This could be very handy if your looking for someplace to go in a specific area, and is definitely another interesting page to show your friends

Thursday, September 14, 2006

ScanR

ScanR is an interesting new service. They have a couple email addresses which you can send images to, either from a cell phone or a digital camera (computer). They then send you an activation code (the first time you use the service). You enter that activation code on their website and set an address to send the results too. They then convert your image into a pdf and do some sort of OCR, making text serachable. The pdf is sent to the email you specify when enter your activation code on the website. The service requires a 1 megapixel phone/camera to work. With my quick test, it seems to work fairly well.

Neat!

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Windows Slowdowns

Almost all windows programs place data in places that cause an OS slowdown. Many also run all the time, or have "quicklaunchers" that load part of the program in ram, so that it starts faster, but slows the system down. Lifehacker has linked an interesting article testing the effects of a number of different, popular programs, so if your computer is slow and you know spyware isn't a problem (a difficult assumption to make) take a look at this article.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

RAM Testing

As with most things, when buying RAM (memory) you sometimes get some that turns out to be defective. If the problem is fairly minor, this can cause general system instability and crashes. To help diagnose memory problems, there are a few tools available. The two most poplar are Memtest86+ and the Windows Memory Diagnostic. Both are free downloads which can be burned to cd or (if you still have one) a floppy. You then boot them and allow them to run awhile. If any problems are found they will be displayed and you can visit the company who made your memory's website and have it replaced (though you should check your that your bios is set correctly first).

Download:

Memtest86+
Windows Memory Diagnostic

Ultimate Boot CD (contains all these tools and many more)

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Last.fm

It has been awhile since my last post, again. My summer job just ended, so hopefully I will have a little more time to post (and ideas for topics).
Anyway, This should be a good one for any music lovers looking for something new to listen to.

Last.fm is a music recommendation service. You download their client or use a supported music player. It then keeps track of what you listen to, like and dislike and comes up with a "recommendation radio" station. The client then streams music it thinks you will like to your computer. You can also get a stream based on a tag or set of tags you give the client. In addition, there is a social aspect, but not being very social I haven't tried it out, and the service works fine even if you don't register any friends.
 You can sign up at last.fm (not sure when the .fm top level domain came to be, but it does seem to work) if you want to give it a try. The service is free, though  if you send them money you can get some extra features.