Items tagged with Earth
From E.T to The Arrival, and UFO hunting TV shows galore, humans have always been fascinated with the possibility of finding life beyond the confines of Earth, be it real or fictional. In that endeavor, scientists are employing new technologies to try and detect signs of life on other planets, and it may happen sooner than you might think. According to one researcher, a new telescope attached to the Deep Space Network (DSN - NASA’s international array of giant radio antennas) could detect life signatures on other planets in as little as 60 hours, but more realistically within the next five to ten years. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to the Hubble telescope...
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Google is making its Maps and Earth products even better. While the company clearly has to match Apple now that the company is cranking out its own Maps app for iOS 6, it seems that 3D offline maps with flyover data isn't enough. Now, it has just published another extensive catalog of new imagery. This week it has new updates to both its high resolution aerial and satellite imagery and our 45° imagery. In total, 25 new cities and 72 new countries/regions are seeing high-res aerial and satellite updates, which will be rolled out to both Maps and Earth. Not surprisingly, the London Olympic Games are juiced up, with new satellite imagery of the Olympic Park / Village. The new 45° imagery...
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Google recently launched Google Earth for Android tablets. With this announcement, Google Earth is now optimized for use on Android 3.0 aka “Honeycomb” tablets. This tablet-friendly version of Google Earth takes advantage of the tablet’s larger screen. It adds a new action bar on the top for access to functions such as search as well as the option to view layers and 3D buildings. Google Earth for Android tablets also provides the option to fly to your location, view Panoramio photos, and more. Google Earth optimized for Android-powered tablets Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 10:00 AM When we launched Google Earth in 2005, most of us were still using flip phones. At the time, the thought...
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There's a lot more to history and archeology than just uncovering the past. Sometimes recreating the past in our present time is the best way to understand how people lived thousands of years ago. One such project, the Rome Reborn project of the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, seeks to digitally rebuild the city of Rome "as it might have appeared at the height of its urban development in the time of Constantine the Great in A.D. 320."The first version of the Rome Reborn project was ten years in the making and was completed only last year. It included digital models of the terrain and over 7,000 structures--250 of which were highly detailed. The source...
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In May, Google Earth came to the browser, with a browser plug-in. It's great to be able to use a browser rather than have to install a separate app. Well, that may be something for the future, but at least for now, you can finally use Google Earth on your iPhone. You can download it from the App Store --- yes, for free. Peter Birch, Google Earth's product manager, said:"The idea of having Earth on a mobile device is something people dreamed of back to the Keyhole days and before. This is the first opportunity we've had to be able to deliver a great experience." The reference to Keyhole refers to the original software, which was originally called Earth Viewer, and was created by Keyhole, Inc,...
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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and Google-sponsored GeoEye-1 satellite, which was launched on September 6, has begun capturing image data from its orbit 423 miles above Earth. The satellite had been undergoing calibration and check out since launch, but transmitted its first, full color half-meter ground resolution images yesterday.Although the first images released from the Satellite are half-meter ground resolution, GeoEye-1 is actually capable of capturing much more precise images. Due to U.S. licensing restrictions, commercial customers--like Google--can only be given access to imagery that has been processed to half-meter ground resolution. But the GeoEye-1 satellite actually...
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So you got up today, sat down to your bowl of Cheerios and Bananas, flipped on the Flinstones for a few minutes and then you really busted a move. You actually brought the bowl over to the sink, before you brushed your teeth and headed off to the office to strap on that desk for another solid 8.125 hours of turning the crank for the commonwealth of wherever you live. Let's face it, most of us lead a pretty sorry existence, at least by comparison, versus some of the really smart folks out there. Folks like the Steve Myers and the boys and girls down at the LHC in Geneva Switzerland crank it up a notch or two when they go to work. Rocket...
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The amount of bad publicity generated from a single financially motivated decision can sometimes be approximately as harmful as the loss the company was taking. Case in point:“New Orleans is about to lose its municipal Wi-Fi? network? as EarthLink plans to halt its participation in the citywide project on May 18, an EarthLink spokesman said Friday.”EarthLink representatives stated that the company was unable to find a buyer for the network, not entirely surprising given the city’s recent history. Given EarthLink’s less than stellar track record in cities such as as Boston, San Francisco and Sacramento, perhaps New Orleans is lucky to get out of the deal now.EarthLink will be offering users...
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Here's a way to peruse the globe while getting regional updates.New York Times "placemarks" will appear on maps where there's relevant news, and showing the New York Times layer in the software will show a window with a month's worth of headlines, Google's LatLong blog said.Google spokeswoman Kate Hurowitz said the company is open to partnerships with other media outlets and that extending such a feature to Google Maps--a much more widely used service than the Google Earth software--"would be a logical progression," though the company has nothing to announce right now. Google's interest in extending this to Google Maps is not only natural, it's a lot more exciting. Naturally if you want...
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Do you ever get that feeling that all day you're just taking one step forward, two steps back? How about that uncanny sort of chill that goes down your spine when you're skulking in late from a night out with the boys, only to realize that your wife or significant other really isn't asleep, she's faking it and your dog-breath, over-indulged, wretchedness won't slide past her, even if you paid her handsomely. Well, it could just be that you haven't yet mastered all time, space and dimension yet, young Jedi. Grand Poo-Baa of all the smart guys in history, Albert Einstein had a theory (well, relatively speaking anyway) that maybe we were all living here on Earth...
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Google Earth is already "sharp" enough. So sharp that insurgents in Iraq have used it to pinpoint troop positions, and so sharp that some countries want Google to restrict the images that it publishes of their land. A new satellite will be launched Tuesday that will produce even sharper images.DigitalGlobe, provider of imagery for Google Inc's (GOOG.O) interactive mapping program Google Earth, said a new high-resolution satellite will boost the accuracy of its satellite images and flesh out its archive. The new spacecraft, dubbed WorldView I, is to be launched on Tuesday. Together with the company's existing Quickbird satellite, it will offer half-meter...
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Some Easter Egg! It's not going to make you want to quit Microsoft Flight Simulator, but there's a hidden flight simulator inside Google Earth. You can even use a joystick with it. Though it’s nowhere close in features to the competition, Marco Gallotta found a hidden flight simulator feature inside the newest version of Google Earth — it’s actually not too shabby for the first go-around. There are two airplanes to choose from, several airports and of course the satellite imagery you have come to love in the actual Google Earth application. It would be cool if they took this free product - a flight simulator with satellite imagery - and turned it into a real product. 'Course, Google has...
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Just two days ago Earthlink announced a layoff of 50% of its workforce Additionally, they announced that they felt they were going to re-evaluate their municipal wi-fi plans, which included (among other cities) citywide services in San Francisco. It seems re-evaluation has already taken place, as the San Francisco wi-fi plan, three years in the making, is now dead. The contract, which was three years in the making, had run into snags with the Board of Supervisors, but ultimately it was undone when Atlanta-based EarthLink announced Tuesday that it no longer believed providing citywide Wi-Fi was economically viable for the company. Newsom blamed the...
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Earthlink has won a number of municipal wi-fi contracts, including San Francisco (!), but it still needs to find ways to balance its ISP business, which is struggling, with the high cost of building its municipal Wi-Fi and cellular phone businesses. The solution, at least for now, is a layoff. On Tuesday, EarthLink announced that it would shed 900 employees. The reason was simple, said Rolla Huff, CEO of the company. EarthLink, which has had four solid quarters of losses and a sinking stock price, needs to return value to its shareholders. And this means eliminating jobs that don't help the company add subscribers or increase revenue.EarthLink's traditional dial-up Internet access business,...
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