Flash Earth is an interesting variation on Google Maps and Google Earth. You can flip between eight different aerial photography and satellite views of the earth with the click of a button. Some of the views are not that different; two of them are Microsoft Virtual Earth, one with labels on, one with labels off. Even some of the competing services don't look that different for some locales; perhaps they both acquire the photos from the same data source.
Robotic device promises to simplify panorama photography: "The Gigapan robotic platform, a device developed by Carnegie Mellon University and the NASA Ames Intelligent Robot Group to automate the shooting of multi-image panoramas with a digital camera, is slated for release in March 2007 for under US$200 along with stitching software, says a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. UPDATE, FEBRUARY 6, 2007: We've added more information on the PanoMachine, an alternative to the Gigapan."
VRlog.com has been redirected to be a sub-weblog of the Art of Geography weblog. It's easier to manage that way. The reader will not have to do anything--vrlog.com will still work. VR articles of interest will continue to be posted here. The older material from VRlog continues to be available, but from http://old.vrlog.com
There may be some propagation delay in the subdomains working.
Photoshop Color Management Policies in Detail: "Photoshop's color management support is very complete, but because of this it can sometimes also seem very complicated and perhaps a bit confusing. Central to all of this are the color management policy settings and how they interact with any profiles that may be embedded in images that you open to work on...."
What is the Sense of Place? Not just a placename, a GPS waypoint, a snapshot, or a logo on a wall.
The practical impact of the BitPass announcement is that we will not be able to sell maps online anymore unless another similar payment system can be found.
This news is certainly a surprise. Apologies to anyone who is inconvenienced.
Received this from BitPass today:
"We want to thank you for your past business, however due to circumstances beyond our
control, we are discontinuing our operations.
We have partnered with Digital River to provide operational support during the
period prior to shut down. As of today, January 19, 2007, all Bitpass Buyers with
US dollar denominated accounts are being notified that they will have seven (7) days
to spend any amounts that currently exist in their Bitpass Account.
I hadn't heard that there was a special version of Canvas with GIS capabilities (or that Canvas is no longer a Deneba product):
http://www.acdamerica.com/arcnews/default.html
Does anyone know if this software allows you to import a set of vectors from Illustrator CS2 and geo-reference them? Then convert to another projection? Then export back to Illustrator? The site mentions georectifying imagery, but nothing about vectors.
erik
Hardly anyone has used the octant map/projection since 1514 or so. At least it is hard to find examples.
So I put it to use in the Art of Geography logo.
Many people have commented on the logo... I thought it would be interesting to delve into this unusual projection/map. The following article explains more about Leonardo da Vinci's octant map and projection:
Soviet-Era Topo Maps of Russian Cities: "Paul sends along a link to these scans of topo maps of Russian cities. The Soviet-era maps date from the 1980s, from what I can tell; they're downloadable as very large TIFF files. Previously: Soviet Mapping Update; Soviet Spies..."
(Via The Map Room.)
Breaking News: Google Earth 4.0: "News from Google's Geo Developer Day, reported by Google Earth Blog, Ogle Earth and The Unofficial Apple Weblog: Google Earth version 4.0 (beta) is now available, with a new interface for all platforms. I say 'all platforms,' because there is..."
(Via The Map Room.)
