Archive for the ‘network-link’ Category

FlashEarth+GoogleEarth Part 2

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Following the amazing interest in the networklink for embedding FlashEarth inside Google Earth 4.2, have performed a few updates…

  1. The zoom is a LOT closer matched, this is thanks to the inspiring formula: $z = (-1.4956 * log($range/1000) + 16.529; (yes really!); brought to you by the wonder of plotting a graph in Excel, creating a trendline, turning on the formula display option. Probably could get an even better match with more patience, but probably about as good as it going to get really.
  2. Removed the title and the directions links, makes the balloon looks a bit nicer, couldn’t get it to go transparent for me tho… suggestions welcome.
  3. When the network link is now a folder so can choose the size of your popup :) The previous version is now the ‘medium’ one.

Though the magic of the web, you get 1) and 2) automatically, if want 3) just download it again:

Open in Google Earth (Required: GE 4.2 Windows)

Thanks again to everyone involved.

Google Earth 4.2 + FlashEarth equals…

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

What if the current view in Google Earth was quickly viewable in other maps, such as those made accessible by FlashEarth? Well, now it is. As you move around the globe a little white arrow follows you around, simple click it to get an approximation of the current view in FlashEarth in a popup balloon.

Open in Google Earth

Total credit to Valery35, for the concept (including a screenshot) on the Google Earth Community. (and to all the people made all the bits that could be pieced together in this 15min hack)

Tweaking the number of the MGRS layer

Monday, June 25th, 2007

Ever since releasing the MGRS layer for Google Earth, I’ve been asked a number of times (well about 10) about tweaking the numbers on the gridlines, to be more ‘MGRS like’. To be honest havent had a clue what this means, but a recent email made me twig whats going on.

Basically the numbers included the hundreds of KM, but in fact that number is already represented in the Grid Letters so doesnt make sence to include again (it was there because the layer was an almost direct port of the UTM code, which of course needs it).

So the server hosted version has been updated, and also the file inside the zip for the offline version (which are in fact identical code!), and if really interested heres the diff.

Enjoy!

MGRS Layer for Google Earth – Offline!

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

Thanks to help from Mark Ferneau, have finally the MGRS layer packaged up ready for use off-line (and GPL licenced!), an often requested feature.

These instructions assume Windows, and that you don’t have a local webserver running. The zip file should be usable to set it up on any local server capable of running PHP, just don’t forget to edit the link in the network link to the path of your webserver.

Without further ado, the instructions:

  1. Download Appweb web server from: http://www.appwebserver.org/ (Tested with 2.2.0)
  2. Install with the general default options
  3. Save AppWeb.conf file in C:\program files\MBedthis Appweb\, overwriting the default (this just sets up the minimum needed for PHP to run, removing some of the extra stuff)
  4. Copy php5ts.dll from C:\Program Files\Mbedthis Appweb\lib\modules\ to C:\Program Files\Mbedthis Appweb\bin\ (not sure why this step is required but Appweb seems to need it)
  5. Extract grid_mgrs.zip into directory C:\appweb\web\offline_nearby\
  6. Start up the appweb server, using Icon in Start Menu. (if it’s already running, icon in System Tray, exit it)
  7. Open the network link – save it to your My Places :)

If there is interest could possible package up some of the other layers run on a local webserver in a similar fashion.

Finally, use at your own risk, it works for us, but your mileage may vary. We welcome any and all feedback (esp. patches!)

Geograph Superlayer v2

Thursday, March 15th, 2007

Following the recent introduction of the Superlayer to explore Geograph Photographs in Google Earth, have updated so that transitions between ‘levels of detail’ are much nicer, as well as sporting new custom icons!

If you have previously downloaded it then you should get the update automatically – otherwise right click the superlayer in My Places and select ‘refresh’ to fetch the latest version. It seems sometimes GE doesn’t reload the styles – so if all you see is a mass of yellow push-pins, restart GE and it should then return to nice circles and blue camera icons.

Or just download it here:

Geograph Superlayer (Google Earth Version 4+ REQUIRED)

Google Earth Version Stats (Mar’07)

Tuesday, March 6th, 2007

A while ago I compiled statistics of the versions of Google Earth in use in the wild (well technically accessing network links at nearby.org.uk) – well an updated version is now available.

For comparison here is the version from last Sept.

Conclusion: GE3 is definitely on the way out, but still actively used. A large number of people haven’t updated their GE4 for a while, and there might be a new version coming out sometime soon.

Update: It turns out my simplistic test for useragents beginning with kh_ missed off Mac and Linux clients – so here is a another updated version that does include such clients. Thanks to a commenter on Gearthblog for spotting this!
(I could rerun the above reports but see little point)

Update 2: It seems the new version was incorrectly calculating the total for Mac/Linux users – updated the link in the update above to correct this.

KML (& NetworkLink) for Nearby & any Geo-WordPress!

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

Following the addition of GeoRSS, earlier today while out photographing some PhotoSpots (TBA), I had an even better (possibly) idea, now that my WordPress stores Lat/Long, why not output KML too! The icing on the cake is you can also wrap it in a NetworkLink so that peoples Google Earth will auto update. (I am surprised couldn’t find this done already!)

And if that isn’t enough then I also release the code under GPL :) – note its the first time written anything for WordPress, so might not be a tidy as could be!

Anyway see it in action on my series of PhotoSpots:

- as all these list the PhotoSpot category, each post includes a link to open the actual spot, so just click the world icon in the balloon to open :)

Download the Source or view the source: WordPress KML Generator and NetworkLink Wrapper

Installation: This is not a proper plugin, so just drop the .php files into the root of your WordPress folder and you should be done (but you can configure the icon to display if you wish by editing the wp-kml.php file)

Use: Normally you would only provide a link to the Wrapper – which in turn links to the feed itself, but the feed is useful like in the above example to plot directly on Google Maps. You can also specify a particular category to display like the above example or otherwise will include all geocoded posts.
Important: Requires the GeoPress extension be installed (to get geocode info)
Only tested on WordPress 2.0.1 – Works For Me – Your Mileage May Vary – no guarantee, implied or otherwise

Geograph Hectads in Google Earth v2

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

Sometime last year I created a visualization of Geograph coverage as a series of 3D columns in Google Earth, well as that is now out of date, time to create updated versions:

: Geograph Points Per Hectad (*)
and Images Submitted Per Hectad (each around 200kb)

These are spectacular in themselves, but if you then create a series of these each timestamped with the dates of the images included, you can get an interactive animation…

So here is a version that downloads a monthly bargraph, since the project began, allowing full animation using the timeslider. Due to the size will only give the Animated Images Version which is the best anyway.

(due to the way of loading the data with nested network links will take time and patience with the timeslider to load them, all it seems to only really be possible by manually dragging the time-slider slowly across the timespan. )

Just need someone to create a fly though preview and upload to YouTube ;)

(* Hectad is a Geograph term for a 10km by 10km square)

Network Link updates

Friday, December 15th, 2006

Following on from the last post about the amazing 3D SpaceNavigator (PE) from 3dconnexion, it has finally inspired me to blow the dust off the experimental solution to Making a View-Based Refresh efficient when tilted?, that I blogged about a while ago.

So I’ve just implemented this on the Geograph Google Earth ‘Wide Area’ Network Link, and the Nearby NetworkLayers, (imaginative names aye?), which along with GB and Ireland Grid Lines Layers any my most used network links.

This should have no affect when looking ‘straight down’ but when the globe is tilted, hopefully the useful information should be better positioned in the foreground rather than extending into the blurry distance.

Feedback welcome…

Blue Marbled Google Earth Globe

Monday, November 20th, 2006

GE Screenshot showing Blue Marble ImagryI really should at least mention the hard work Frank Taylor from gearthblog.com has put into getting Blue Marble Imagry to overlay on your Google Earth Globe. The results are amazing, it seems a definite improvement over the patchwork mosaic you see when viewing large areas, and as a bonus you get realtimeish (3hours) global clouds.

Anyway read more over at GEarthBlog, here.
Or just download directly here Google Earth KML Download.

(it exploits the new Region Functionality in the GE v4 (Beta), however a bug prevents this from working nicely in all but the very latest version, so such users fall over gracefully to a version that works by intereacting with a webserver. )