By Rich Menga on Apr 30, 2008 in PCMech Wire | comments(2)
Google Earth is obviously one of the coolest (and useful) mapping programs on the planet. To this day when I use it I think to myself “Y’know, the Boston Museum of Science said we’d have stuff like this in the future when I was a kid.” And yeah they were right, but I bet even they didn’t think we’d have stuff as good as Google Earth is.
So.. what’s the next step for Google Earth? Land? Check. Sky? Check? Space? Check?
Ocean?
Yes.
And according to what’s being said about this, everyone is crazy-interested in this idea.
Yes, the idea of having a 3D oceanographic map is awesome.
Why?
Because it hasn’t been done before. Not like this, anyway.
[Source: c|net News.com]
By Rich Menga on Apr 15, 2008 in Software | comments(1)
I do use Google Earth from time to time (which by the way they’re supposed to release v4.3 today with more Mac support and Street Views included), and find that memorizing the keystrokes in the software does make it faster to use. I mention this because said honestly, the interface is a bit clunky at best. Then again there’s really no other software (for free anyway) like it.
Panning the map
ALT+Arrow keys
(Using mouse: Click/drag)
Zooming in/out
CTRL+Up/Down arrow keys
(Using mouse: Scroll wheel up/down)
Tilting the map
SHIFT+Up/Down keys (if the map is “flat”, press SHIFT+Down arrow first)
Save an image of what you see on the map at the moment
CTRL+SHIFT+S
Reverting the map to “flat” 2D mode (i.e. the original mode on start)
R (yes, just the R key)
Switching to decimal degrees format
(Reason for doing this: Makes for easier copying/pasting to Google Maps if necessary)
Tools / Options / “3D View” tab / select “Decimal Degress” under “Show Lat/Long”
Making the touring speed faster
The touring speed by default is fairly slow. You can speed it up by doing the following:
Tools / Options / “Touring” tab
Fly-to Speed: 0.5000
Tour Speed: 0.5000
You can also use the slider bars but I prefer manually entering in values.
(Re)setting your Start Location
Navigate to where you want on the map (maybe your home address).
Click View / Make this my start location
