gHacks technology news » google-earth http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:29:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Google Earth Strange Sights http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/01/google-earth-strange-sights/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/01/google-earth-strange-sights/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:33:02 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=5164 Google Earth is definitely an application that is fun to play around with. Chance is that you will stumble upon some strange sights sooner or later. Plugins make the discovery process easier and it is surprisingly easy to load and find interesting places using those plugins. They basically provide everyone with an ability to load places directly in Google Earth.

The Strange Sights Google Earth Plugin is a collection of interesting sights that users spotted in Google Earth. Sights are divided into categories like “Only from the sky” with sights that can only be seen from the sky or “Virtual Sightseeings” that lead you directly to the Victoria Falls and Mount Everest. They also got a crop circle category for those that are interested in the occult.

Users who would like to give this a try need Google Earth and the Strange Sights plugin.

google earth strangest sights

The plugin can be loaded from the File > Open menu and is available in the left bar afterwards. A click on one of the sights loads it directly in Google Earth.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/01/google-earth-strange-sights/feed/ 0 Watch Real-Time Air Traffic http://www.ghacks.net/2008/03/04/watch-real-time-air-traffic/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/03/04/watch-real-time-air-traffic/#comments Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:08:47 +0000 Tobey http://www.ghacks.net/2008/03/04/watch-real-time-air-traffic/ A friend of mine asked me recently if I knew that it was possible to view real-time air traffic in Google Earth. I had to admit that I never heard about this before, the only thing that came close to it was the website where users could listen to live air traffic communications. He send me the link to the website which offered this service and told me that he was currently tracking a flight of a friend who was vising New Zealand.

I obviously had to download had to download Google Earth to test this application but after that everything went on smoothly. Users have four options which are all accessible from the main page. The first is to load an hourly snapshot of all active flights (over the United States) into Google Earth, the second to load the latest flight incidents into the software, the third to view the live inbound traffic of a selected airport and the last to track a specific flight of an airline that is available.

real time air traffic

I do not have that much experience with Google Earth but was not it possible to get into some sort of 3D mode in there ?

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/03/04/watch-real-time-air-traffic/feed/ 3 Google Earth Flight Simulator http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/07/google-earth-flight-simulator/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/07/google-earth-flight-simulator/#comments Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:32:40 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/07/google-earth-flight-simulator/ I never played around with Google Earth for long and did not follow the news that closely. Maybe that is why I never heard about the flight simulator that is build into Google Earth. I read about it today in a computer magazine and thought it would be cool enough to post it along to all those other unknowing ones.

If you have not done so download Google Earth (link below) and install it on your system. Press CTRL + ALT + A after starting Google Earth for the first time to enter the flight simulator. You get to chose between two planes, the F-16 and the SR22 and several airports as your start position.

Joysticks are supported as well and it is easier to fly and more fun if you use one. After that Google Earth loads the airport and you can fly the plane using a mixture of keyboard shortcuts and the joystick or keyboard and mouse.

google earth flight simulator

It takes a while until you get all keyboard shortcuts right. The most important ones are Page Up and Down to increase and decrease thrust, G for the landing gear and Space to pause the flight sim.

google earth flight simulator

Read More:
Google Earth

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/07/google-earth-flight-simulator/feed/ 7 Google Earth adds the Sky http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/24/google-earth-adds-the-sky/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/24/google-earth-adds-the-sky/#comments Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:12:52 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/24/google-earth-adds-the-sky/ Google Earth is a interesting application not only for geographers but also for everyone else who is interested in the earth. All the addons that are available for it make it a great experience to learn more about the earth. The sky is the limit, that’s what Google probably thought when they decided to add the Sky – that’s the blue thingy above your head with all the shiny stars – to Google Earth.

The software is still called Google Earth but offers a button that takes you to the sky where you can zoom into stars and galaxies, display additional information such as constellations. Images from the Hubble space telescope are visible and enriched with further explanations of what you are actually seeing when looking at them.

Take a look at the video below to see a short demonstration of some of the features of Google Earth Sky.. They should probably think about a new name for this one.

download: Google Earth

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/24/google-earth-adds-the-sky/feed/ 1 Link your Images to Google Earth http://www.ghacks.net/2007/02/05/link-your-images-to-google-earth/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/02/05/link-your-images-to-google-earth/#comments Mon, 05 Feb 2007 08:15:50 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/02/05/link-your-images-to-google-earth/ Taking pictures while you are on holiday is one thing, linking those pictures to Google Earth using the geolocation feature is the next level. Instead of just showing the pictures that you have taken you can now show the viewers the location the picture was taken in Google Earth.

Only a few digital cameras support that the geolocation is automatically added to the Exif data of the picture, but don’t worry if your camera can’t do it automatically. Panorado Flyer makes it easy to edit the data and add the geolocation to the image. This is done by using Google Images to find the location that the image was taken and adding the coordinates found using the context menu.

I think that this is an excellent way to spice up those boring “we are back from holidays, take a look at all the pictures that we have taken” kind of events. This tool would be even nicer if it would be possible to create automatic slideshows showing the images and Google Earth locations and burn those information on a DVD to view on tv.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/02/05/link-your-images-to-google-earth/feed/ 2 Use your Wiimote in Windows http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/27/use-your-wiimote-in-windows/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/27/use-your-wiimote-in-windows/#comments Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:37:57 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/27/use-your-wiimote-in-windows/ I bought a Nintendo Wii when it came out. As you might know you do not use gamepads to play the games but the so called Wiimote which looks very much like a tv remote control and uses bluetooth to communicate with the core system. Carl Kenner developed the software Glove Pie which can be used to control games and applications with gestures, speech and other input devices.

Carl added Wiimote support to Glove (Glove Programmable Input Emulator) Pie which makes it possible to use the Wiimote and the Nunchuck to control applications in Windows. You need to have bluetooth enabled to be able to communicate with the Wiimote and Nunchuck though. Just download and start the Glove Pie software. After that you could add scripts to support the devices.

I found a forum post that had some good examples for scripts that you could use to use the buttons of the Wii devices for example.

Up = Wiimote.Up
Down = Wiimote.Down
Left = Wiimote.Left
Right = Wiimote.Right
A = Wiimote.A
B = Wiimote.B
One = Wiimote.One
Two = Wiimote.Two
Home = Wiimote.Home
Minus = Wiimote.Minus
Equals = Wiimote.Plus

Some scripts for the Glove Pie can be found at Joseph Coulstons website. The two scripts that he offers make it possible to use the Wiimote with Google Earth and one script to display the battery level of the Wiimote.

It is quite possible that we will soon witness some games that work specifically with the Wiimote connected to your computer.

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