Do you like maps and movies?

Hey guys....some of you may know of these two programs I am about to show you, and some may not.

This first one is actually just a cool tool for people who like to download music videos and movies (of ones you already own, course.) It is called G-Spot. Have you ever downloaded a video from somewhere and you couldn't get the audio to play, but the video was fine, or vide versa? Well load your file into g-spot and it will tell you EXACTLY what codec (compresser/decompressor) the file is using for audio+video and whether you have them installed or not. It is really nifty. Read more and DL at http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

the second program you have to see to believe. It is called Keyhole. It is made by Google....or powered by Google....or both....anyway....it is basically a program that shows you a big globe that you can navigate. Depending on where you live (the quality varies) you can zoom right down to your own house. Granted, the sattelite images ar 1-2 years old, but it is still REALLY cool. You can tilt the angle and vies 3d terrain and much more. It has cool animations as you go from place to place, with surprising resolutions. You only get a 7 day free trial but seriously....it is worth just to look and see what it does, honostly. Use all of the navigation buttons on the bottom of the program to see how you can do fun stuff with it. Check it out at http://keyhole.com/

Edit: also you can check out Mars, too, not just Earth. :smile:

double edit: Here is a screenie of my house! I am not zoomed all the way, but it just gets blurrier anyway. You can see my cars and stuff. I dunno...I think it is neat anyway.

Try this.. Its free and no download rewquired.

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/

or Try Google Maps.

http://maps.google.com/

OK...With the Google Keyhole download....it isn't just a click and enlarge thing...it fluidly zooms in and out of anywhere....and shows roads, ;andmarks, and all sorts of helpful overlays.....and it doesn't look like this (screenie from google screenshot):



Not the same. It is really neat the program is setup. Totally worth at least a look see.

And on the terraserver link, the latest photo from my area is from 1995, and it is just a click and instant zoom with no angling.....Keyhole is really wicked and much easier to use and navigate. Keyhole is pretty amazing.

Thanks for the other links though!

The terraserver one was pretty cool although the photos of my area were
from 1991 and it was hard for me to get my bearings. I couldn't
find my house.

I'm tellin ya....Keyhole is like SUPER easy.It is an interactive globe you can zoom in on. doesnt just go frame by frame....it is.....argh! Really cool.....spent hours just zooming around...looking at cool places......it feels almost surreal.

edit: For those of you who who don't want to download the 9.5 MB install file and are skeptical, here is a 4.9 MB video preview of me zooming in on my house and some random bridge in Montana. Uses DivX codec.

Wait till they launch a 5 gigapixel camera up there.

Consequently, the human eye is roughly equal to a 6 Terapixel CCD camera.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Dark Tree: said:
I'm tellin ya....Keyhole is like SUPER easy.It is an interactive
globe you can zoom in on. doesnt just go frame by frame....it
is.....argh! Really cool.....spent hours just zooming around...looking
at cool places......it feels almost surreal.
edit: For those of you who who don't want to download the 9.5 MB install file and are skeptical, here is a 4.9 MB video preview of my zooming in on my house and some random bridge in Montana. Uses DivX codec.

Wow, I finally understand the movie reference. That's really cool.

Crono- You need to have the NBC sound now when you click that image.

And ATM.....what movie reference?

Does this keyhole thing also map Europe ? (Belgium ?)

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

It maps anything and everything on Earth and Mars. E V E R Y W H E R E. Depending on where you zoom, you may not get as high res as I displayed in the video. Where in Belgium do you want to see? I can make a demo vid for ya....or just DL it and check it out!

However....funny note: I tried to zoom in on the White House but they have it blurred out :razz:

It maps anything and everything on Earth and Mars. E V E R Y W H E R E. Depending on where you zoom, you may not get as high res as I displayed in the video. Where in Belgium do you want to see? I can make a demo vid for ya....or just DL it and check it out!
However....funny note: I tried to zoom in on the White House but they have it blurred out :razz:

They don't want you to see the Chaney clone factory grinder and the anti-vampire rockets.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Dark Tree: said:
And ATM.....what movie reference?

slaps forehead I just realized that the title of your thread was
referring to the other program you were pimping. When I watched
the video I just thought of all those movies in which there is some
extreme shot of the earth that zooms all the way to a single person
moving around. I reread the title of this thread and incorrectly
put two and two together.

Thanks dark tree yeah keyhole is a lot of fun just to go looking around and stuff

HL Man- if you find something cool, post a screenie! Make sure you test out the 'tilt' contol....shows cool elevation (unless you are looking at flat territory).

Edit: Maybe Crono is right....



/runs...

...from Government

www.mapquest.com used to do this for free. after the 9/11 thing it seemed to just vanish. /me thinks it was a security reason.

was sad really, i used it to confirm my destinations. if i saw busses at the place, i knew i had the right location. you'd be surprised how many times people post address of their main office, and the bus barn is 10 miles away. :sad:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

www.mapquest.com IS good for for showing exactly how to get somewhere. I used to look at that, too. With keyhole, you can toggle it showing road overlays, bus places, parks/recreation areas, volcanoes, and all sorts of interesting stuff....or, you can turn them off so you can just look at the territory. :smile:

Mapquest always gives not the shortest way to get somewhere because it doesn't take traffic into consideration and it uses main roads only.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

omgz0r keyhole is teh rockz0rz j00r b0xorz.

That program is the bees knees man, I spent like 3 hours last night
just playing around my neighbourhood. I found the pyramids and
moutn olympus and the coliseum and the skydome and the CN tower, but I
coulnd't find the whitehouse because I don't know where it is.

My area hasn't been updated very recently, as the community centre and
skatepark aren't there, still really cool though. Thanks for that
DarkTree, now I must distribute it among my friends.

Although finding cool buildings IS fun....I personally like to find big mountans and such and then use the 'tilt' arrows to alter my view from overhead to the side...then it is like I am in a plane looking forward and zooming through rocky mountains :smile: . Feels like a weird videogame....except over real terrain!

I think I am actually going to buy it when my trial runs out. $25 a year isn't bad for what you get. Also, you can go to http://bbs.keyhole.com/boards and DL a whole bunch of kml files...which are what keyhole uses to locate certain areas. Users post in the forums a cool site they found....and you can DL this tiny 4kb file that launches you right to this cool sighting (like someone thought they found a UFO, another one a blimp, another one just some cool geography.

Want to see something amazing? Go find the volcano Mount Vesuvius that is in Italy. It rises up from the plain of Naples. Tilt your view and check it out. It is really cool with topographical accuracy.

Edit: Actually, here is the KML file that will take you right to it :smile:

Did you mean Mount Vesuvius the volcano? Or is it simply a regular mountain called Vesuvio?

Vesuvius the volcano

There..I even edited my post. :smile:

Hahah its ok I was just wondering if there was actually another
mountain with such a close name. I wasn't trying to be a
smart-ass :smile: