Sorry about the xkcd rip-off comic, I’m just kinda burned out on drawing in detail after Marxman and Engels, the Velocicopter, and the half-dozen sketches of Whale Heart Submarine in slightly different poses that I did for some reason. Normal UW! programming returning soon!

It’s WebWorkerDaily’s fault that I’ve bought an iPod touch (s aapl). (That’s my excuse, anyway.) As I looked at potential subjects to write about, I kept seeing cool apps, and I need to be able to test them, right?

But why not buy an iPhone, or a Palm Pre, which I’d had my eye on for several months? The Pre seems to be a good phone, but it doesn’t yet have the apps that the iPhone does. And the monthly fees for Pre service are considerably higher than what I’m paying now. The iPhone’s monthly fees are even higher, and many folks I’ve talked to don’t find it to be a very good phone.

So, keeping my current phone and buying an iPod touch seemed like a good compromise. I can get good Wi-Fi coverage in most areas where I live, so I’ll be able to go online, even without the phone function.

Many of my WWD colleagues already have iPhones. Aliza has recently written about good apps for web workers. Dawn’s shared her favorites, too. But with the holidays coming up, here are some of my ideas for apps to put on that brand-new iPhone or iPod touch:

Communication

• eBuddy. A multi-service instant message client for MSN/Windows Live (s msft), AIM, Yahoo (s yhoo), Gtalk (s goog), ICQ, Facebook Chat and MySpace Chat. Supports multiple accounts on the same service. Versions for web, Android and other platforms also available. Free.
• Facebook. A well-designed way for Facebook users to keep up with their friends while on the road. The app has had its issues, but they are apparently fixed now. Free.
• Gist. Scott and I have both found Gist useful, and the Gist iPhone app does a pretty good job of presenting a lot of information in a small space. Free.
• LinkedIn. This app keeps LinkedIn users, er, “linked in” from their iPhones and iPod touches. The latest upgrade adds some nice features, including an inbox for LinkedIn messages. Free.
• Nimbuzz. You can use this app to make inexpensive international calls over Wi-Fi. The app also includes a chat function, but it’s pretty rudimentary compared to eBuddy. Free app; rates for calls vary.
• RingCentral. If you’re a RingCentral user, you can use this app to manage your phone messages and more. Free for RingCentral users.
• Tweetie. There are lots of Twitter apps, but so far, I like Tweetie the best. It has a clean interface, and supports multiple Twitter accounts. Thanks for the tip, Darrell! $2.99.
• Waveboard. Mobile access to Google Wave. Will hopes for better access soon; I imagine that this app will become more sophisticated as Wave does. $0.99.

File and Idea Management

• Dropbox. This app is another reason to love Dropbox, which many of us at WWD do. As one would expect from Dropbox, it just works. Free.
• Evernote. My colleagues at WWD like Evernote, too, and I’ve finally seen the light. It’s a great replacement for PhatNotes, which I used to use with various Palm (s palm) products. (The Palm versions are apparently no longer available.) Free.

News

• Reeder. A very nice and elegant RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader. $0.99.

Just about every news source also has its own iPhone/iPod touch app these days. So far, I’ve been impressed with the ones from NPR and from some news outlets that have used the PodCurry platform.

Password Management

• 1Password. Manage and sync passwords. I’ve been playing with the brand-new version 3, and it’s good enough that I’ve moved from SplashID after many years. Use Dropbox with 1Password to make your password data available on multiple machines. $7.99.
• LastPass. Manage and sync passwords across multiple machines. The Firefox add-on for this service was included in WWD’s Add-Ons Collection. Apps for iPhones and other mobile devices available with premium membership, $12/year.

I’ve barely begun finding fun stuff, but I think I’m off to a good start with the Google Earth app, and TriPeaks Lite. I’m sure that I’ll find more, but I really need to get back to work now. Happy holidays!

What iPhone or iPod touch apps would you recommend for new users?

Since we always use Google and Gmail with our clients I also get questions about why. Why Google over Yahoo? Stuff of that sorts. Honestly I use Google because that’s all I’ve ever used, but if you are still debating between the two here are some interesting and almost unknown facts about Google:

1. The name Google is a spelling error. The founders of the site, Larry page and Sergey Brin, thought they were going for ‘Googol.’ Googol is the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, Mathematics and the Imagination by Kasner and James Newman.Google’s play on the term reflects the company’s mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web. Initially, Larry and Sergey Brin called their search engine BackRub, named for its analysis of the of the web’s “back links.” The search for a new name began in 1997, with Larry and his officemates starting a hunt for a number of possible new names for the rapidly improving search technology.
2. The reason the Google page is so bare is because the founder didn’t know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. Due to the sparseness of the homepage, in early user tests they noted people just kept sitting staring at the screen, waiting for the rest to appear. To solve the particular problem theGoogle Copyright message was inserted to act as an end of page marker.
3. Google started as a research project by Larry page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 and 23 years respectively. Google’s mission statement is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
   The company’s first office was in a garage, in Menlo Park, California. Google’s first employee was Craig Silverstein, now Google’s director of technology.The basis of Google’s search technology is called PageRank that assigns an “importance” value to each page on the web and gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that is not why it is called PageRank. It is actually named afterGoogle co-founder Larry Page.
4. Google receives about 20 million search queries each day from every part of the world, including Antarctica and Vatican.You can have theGoogle homepage set up in as many as 116 different languages — including Urdu, Latin, Cambodia, Tonga, and Yoruba. In fact, Google has the largest network of translators in the world.
5. In the earliest stage of Google, there was no submit button, rather the Enter key needed to be pressed.Google has banned computer-generated search requests, which can sop up substantial system resources and help unscrupulous marketers manipulate its search rankings.
6. The Google’s free web mail service Gmail was used internally for nearly two years prior to launch to the public. The researchers found out six types of email users, and Gmail has been designed to accommodate these six.The free e-mail service recently changed its name for new UK users. Following a trademark dispute with a London-based Independent International Investment Research, the mail account has been renamed Google Mail.
7. It would take 5,707 years for a person to search Google’s 3 billion pages. The Google software does it in 0.5 seconds.Google Groups comprises more than 845 million Usenet messages, which is the world’s largest collection of messages or the equivalent of more than a terabyte of human conversation.
8. The logos that appear on the Google homepage during noteworthy days and dates and important events are called Google Doodle. The company has also created an online museum where it has all the logos it has put on various occasions so far.Dennis Hwang, a Korean computer artist in the United States, is the guy behind these witty Doodles. Hwang has been drawing the face ofGoogle for over two years.
9. You have heard of Google Earth , but not many know there is a site called Google Moon, which maps the Lunar surface.
   Google Moon is an extension of Google Maps and Google Earth that, courtesy of NASA imagery, enables you to surf the Moon’s surface and check out the exact spots that the Apollo astronauts made their landings

    

   Google Moon
10. Keyhole, the satellite imaging company that Google acquired in October 2004 was funded by CIA.
    Keyhole’s technology runs Google’s popular program Google Earth that allows users to quickly view stored satellite images from all around  the world.

     

    keyhole
11. I have on more to ad, which I learned about this weekend. If you type in googlegooglegooglegoogle.com you get 4 google search screens in one! All I can say isAMAZING! Perfect for us multitaskers!

Here is the link for more interesting info: ten-things-about-google-that-you-might-not-know

Thanks for reading. Have a great Thanksgiving!

~Chelsea

Despite the fact I’m only 38 (this coming Friday in fact ! Happy B-Day to me ! LOL! ) one of my regrets is that I was taught how to pass an exam rather than think or find out for myself. through GCSE’s and A-levels, I learned about events but only really in terms of what I needed to say to get a good mark and not really to evaluate what it all meant. Admittedly A-Levels were a bit better but still not great. Or at least I didn’t think so at the time and certainly that impression hasn’t improved. It’s possible I just didn’t have the right attitude at school, but then not many teenagers have.

Over the years though, I’ve been more and more interested in the subjects I took. Specifically Politics and World Affairs since 1939. If only the technology available now was open to me then ! Reading about events during the second world war, the cold war and the two gulf wars have really come to life for me because I can cross reference the locations with Google Earth. You can see the layout of the land, zoom in on buildings and if available, click on links that take you to a Wikipedia page with more information.

It’s also collaborative in that users can post their own photos (although some are in the wrong place). It’s like a form of touring without the travel ! Google Earth is also 3d, so as you zoom in, the camera levels out and you can guide the ‘camera’ through the valleys giving you an appreciation of the terrain the armies crossed or the view the leaders had from their windows. You can almost imagine Churchill looking out from the White cliffs toward France. I’m not sure he ever did, but you can imagine !

For more recent events, for instance since 1998 (although some locations go back earlier than this) you can use the historical view function to see archived photo’s and compare the scenery to modern day. This is useful when looking at the Twin Towers for example. you can see them on fire, before they fell and then go through time to see how the site has evolved over the years.

It’s all blooming marvellous ! And from my experience as a user, much better than the Microsoft offering.

Here’s an excellent site that I found. http://www.thirdreichruins.com/ The details on here show comparative photos taken in the 1940’s to shots taken recently. They illustrate how the buildings and land has changed since the war. When I was at school, we really didn’t have this kind of information. All we knew was the British or Allied forces side of it. We were shown only the most famous pictures of the lands where the fighting actually took place. So it’s good to get beneath the skin of it all and see some revealing, shocking and surprising images. Using the location information on this site, you can look it up in Google Earth and really get a feeling for the scale of events. Some of the Nazi buildings left behind are remarkable, in size, ambition and ultimate failure.

I’m enjoying the journey I’m on with this. I’m finding out a lot more than I ever thought possible and more than ever it’s bringing home the significance and importance of world history and the sacrifice people made to get us where we are today.

Today was my first day back on my bike riding in the “real world,” as opposed to riding inside on the trainer, since my accident on July 3.  For a long time, I couldn’t ride without risking hurting my arm if I fell, but lately I’ve been putting off riding out of what I now understand was just pure fear.  An odd fear, not one that I was even conscious of, even if I kept finding reasons not to get back on my bike — too cold, too windy, too much to do, needed a new helmet, etc., etc.  Only when I got back on the bike and started down the hill did I recognize:  I was afraid.  I felt uncomfortable, unsure, wobbly, the tires seemed to narrow, the road passed under me too fast.  I kept saying to myself, ’slow, just go slow, don’t fall.’

Right after it happened, it would replay over and over in my head: beginning the turn, suddenly becoming aware that I was not going to make it, drifting toward the stone wall while desperately trying to avoid it, then the sharp crash, a feeling of “ooof” as I struck the wall straight on, following by a consciousness of flying uncontrollably through the air with my bike, finally landing on my back, stunned and motionless, then hearing myself moaning, groaning, moaning, groaning, rocking from side to side like a baby, trying without success to lift my head, thinking to myself, ‘I have to move out of the road, I don’t want to get hit by a car,’ then looking up at a man and a woman, trying to sit up but still too stunned.

It took several minutes before I could sit up, and when I did I was automatically holding my left arm with my right, conscious that I had probably broken it.  I wasn’t so much in pain as I was in shock.  I didn’t have many cuts and scrapes, but I was aware on some primal level that I’d hurt myself badly.  The people who helped me tried to get me to stand up, but the first attempt did not work; I felt like I was going to be sick and had to sit back down on the pavement for several minutes before I could finally get up.  My whole body felt bruised.  I could barely lift myself into the back seat of the SUV that took me to the emergency room.  When I got out at the hospital, still holding my left arm, I felt woozy, unsteady.  I wondered if I could make it inside on my own.

I did, of course, but didn’t realize until later how seriously I’d broken my arm.  Not until a week and a half later did I discover I’d also broken a rib.  And the deep purple, almost brown bruises on my upper arm and side took many weeks to resolve.

So fear of getting back on the bike was, I guess, to be expected.  I had never had an accident so serious, and getting back on the bike, on  the road, I was right there again, in the same position, vulnerable.  To compensate, I took it slow and went on an easy short ride, on familiar roads, through a pretty, fresh, clear autumn afternoon.

Et voilà, quelques photos que j’ai prises sur la route….

Me and the bike:

Part of my route:

Grapevines in Autumn:

Finally, a cool technological thing:  I used the Google My Tracks application and the GPS on my new phone to create statistics and an xml file that works on Google Earth, Google Maps, or other mapping software.  Here’s the route shown on Google Maps:

View Larger Map

As for the statistics, well, they were nothing great, except to note that even with my fear of this ride, I managed at some point to hit 26 miles per hour, and had a total elevation gain of 700 feet.  Not too shabby, I guess, for the first time in almost 5 months.

Acum câteva zile, Google Earth 5.1 a ieșit din beta,  versiune ce aduce multe îmbunătățiri în ceea ce privește navigarea deasupra globului. L-am testat și eu astăzi și într-adevăr, față de predecesorul său, programul se mișcă mult mai fluid și încărcarea se face mai repede. De-abia azi am testat și funcția de imagini istorice pentru zona Universității din București și sunt curios când vor mai actualiza și teritoriul României cu imagini satelitare recente.

Am avut câteva discuții cu colegii interesați de analiză spațială și am căzut de acord că până la un punct, Google Earth e bun și în ceea ce privește folosirea fișierelor *.kml și *.kmz și pentru vizualizare de date spațiale.

Pentru a învăța bazele aplicației, în caz că nu le știți, puteți accesa (în limba engleză):

1. Informații de bază

2. Setări ale programului

3. Simulator de zbor

4. Folosirea Google Earth offline

5. Despre fișiere *.kml și *.kmz

6. Trucuri pentru navigare

7. Ghidul oficial al utilizatorului (în română)

Estuve revisando mi lector de feeds (Google Reader) y me encontré con muchas noticias sin leer (je) pero muchas cosas útiles o que no han pasado a la obsolescencia. Hice una selección como para que te entretengas un buen rato.

Si sos usuario de Ubuntu, esto te puede servir:

• TIPS: Fácil conversión de video en Ubuntu
• Instalar Google Earth Oficial en Ubuntu
• Instalar OpenShot Video en Ubuntu
• 8 trucos para dejar Ubuntu 9.10 a punto
• Lo que todo Ubuntero debe conocer
• Inicio automático (o no) en Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala
• Nuevo Código de Conducta en Ubuntu

Esto también es interesante (aunque no seas ubuntero):

• OOo4Kids, OpenOffice para pequeños
• Conexión Libre 01 (Podcast) (¡Ánimo!)
• Ayuda para todas las distros de GNU/Linux (Foros Portal Supremos)
• ¿Qué es eso de GNU/Linux? ¿Por qué usar GNU/Linux?

Lo que uno se puede encontrar en

google earth

Francisco P. Moreno, el famoso perito Moreno fue un gran científico con espíritu de aventura insaciable. Antes de cumplir los treinta años ya había recorrido la Patagonia argentina en 5 expediciones diferentes, al principio en búsqueda de fósiles y luego con los fines de exploración y de soberanía nacional que tanta fama y reconocimiento le dieron.

Con 21 años de edad recorrió por primera vez a caballo el camino hasta Carmen de Patagones en búsqueda de fósiles prehistóricos que tanta pasión le despertaban. Visita además un cementerio indígena. Nada normal para un joven de familia acomodada porteña de su edad. “Otra Argentina mas allá de las aulas, de las universidades y de los salones de alta sociedad”- F.P.Moreno.

Al año siguiente parte en barco rumbo a la desembocadura del río Santa Cruz, con intenciones de llegar a Chile. Se interna en la estepa patagónica y regresa al norte hasta remontar el río Negro. Contacta grupos indígenas y acopia mucho material arqueológico. Busca integrar la Patagonia al país, no solo explorarla. “Hay una sola patria para el mapuche y para el blanco. Una sola patria, a pesar de todo…”

En el 1875, a pocos meses de haber regresado a Buenos Aires, se dirige nuevamente con rumbo sur buscando el paso a Valdivia, Chile. Remontó el río Negro hasta el Limay y llegó hasta tierras del cacique Sayhueque. Tras reunirse con el principal líder patagónico, se enfrenta valientemente en un duelo al cacique, le hace frente, pero no logra el derecho de paso. Moreno se hizo amigo de otro cacique, quien finalmente coopera para que este joven de 23 años sea el primer huinca en llegar al Lago Nahuel Huapi.

Su cuarta expedición busca afianzar la soberanía sobre los límites sur y oeste del actual territorio santacruceño. Decide alcanzar las nacientes del río Santa Cruz bajo el mando de Don Luis Piedrabuena. Para esos tiempos se hablaba por aquellos pagos de un hombre blanco que visitaba las tribus juntando bichos, que le había hecho frente a Sayhueque, ya era conocido entre la indiada. Luego de remontar el río Santa Cruz, nombra el Lago Argentino, donde se baña el glaciar que hoy lleva su nombre. A favor de la corriente baja nuevamente el río y se dirige a caballo a Punta Arenas, para luego volver en barco a Buenos Aires.

Su último viaje le depara las peores situaciones que debió enfrentar. Dado que las relaciones con los aborígenes empeoraban de la mano de las campañas militares en su contra, al entrar nuevamente en tierras de Sayhueque es tomado prisionero y condenado a muerte. Con sus dos acompañantes logran alcanzar con una balsa de troncos el río Collon Curá. Navegando de noche y escondiéndose durante el día bajan por el río hasta el Limay en las proximidades del Neuquén. Fueron seis días terribles. El séptimo día llegan a la confluencia del Limay con el Neuquén, actual ciudad de Neuquén. Cumple los 28 años en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, a la cual llegó en camilla, con sus piernas llagadas, una fiebre galopante y muchos kilos menos.

El resto de su vida transcurre entre los museos de los cuales fue director, entre libros y  universidades argentinas y europeas. Fue reconocido por lograr tratados territoriales con Chile, favorecer el movimiento Scout y favorecer de la preservación de las riquezas naturales.

Murió en Buenos Aires a los 67 años. Sus restos fueron trasladados  y reposan hoy en la Isla Centinela, en el lago Nahuel Huapi, junto a los de su esposa, dentro del parque nacional que fundó, gozando de la majestuosidad, la belleza y el silencio del lago y de esa zona austral que él descubrió y que contribuyó con su abnegada tarea a engrandecer a la Argentina.

Fuentes: Temakel, Wikipedia, Los Glaciares

[Shingo] shared his implementation of a stationary bike as a virtual reality interface. This is similar to the Google Street View setup we covered a week ago but goes a few steps further. They patched into the bike computer to pick up rotation of the bicycle wheel and added an accelerometer for directional control. This setup can navigate through Street View but the video after the break also details an interface with Google Earth and even the ability to navigate through Second Life, following your avatar as it bikes along with you. The use of a wearable display is far superior to something like the SurfShelf and really gives you a goal other than just some cold-weather exercise. So take this idea, patch it into a wearable computer and you’ve got the exercise setup worthy of the future world we’ve been promised.

Contoh gambar di atas menunjukkan dua Masjid yang berbeda arah kiblatnya.

Dengan menggunakan Google Earth kita bisa menentukan arah kiblat di mana kita tinggal. Beri tanda tempat tinggal kita di Google Earth, kemudian beri tanda letak Ka’bah di Google Earth. Tarik garis lurus dengan menngunakan fasilitas penggaris di Google Earth

Continue Reading…

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

I’ve been using it for the past couple of months, for visualizations.

Here, go on and read the documentation. It’s rather well-written.

The short of it: You can access the API using Javascript. But the fun doesn’t begin until you’ve begun with KML.

More coming up. I’ve been working on this quite a bit.

Na briga entre Microsoft e Google quem acaba por ganhar somos nós internautas.De um lado o Google Earth,que inicialmente começou com imagens aéreas,agora lança o Street View,programa que permite ao usuário fazer um percurso fotográfico como se caminhasse na rua.Várias cidades da Europa,EUA,Austrália e Japão já foram contempladas por este serviço,e a empresa promete que o número de cidades inclusas vai aumentar.
A Microsoft por seu lado tem o Bing Maps,que oferece a possibilidade de ver a cidade com a opção Bird’s Eye.Pode-se assim ter uma visão mais ampla da cidade,ver fachadas e altuars de edifício e tal…por alguns momentos pode-se imaginar que se voa literalmente pelos céus da cidade.
Abaixo um exemplo das duas ferramentas,tiradas ambas na Avenida Wagram em Paris:

Google Earth Street view

Bing Maps Bird’s Eye viem

www.bing.com/maps
www.maps.google.com

Desde o passado dia 13 é possível ver a cidade de Valência, onde vivo, em 3D no Google Earth. Para isso, confirmar que o tema/capa “Edificios 3D” está activado (lado inferior esquerdo). Isto não descarta uma visita à cidade! Fonte.

Google Earth for iPhone was first released an year back & presently being its 1^st Anniversary, Google has presented a gift for iPhone again. Google has released “Google Earth 2.0”, a new version of Google Earth, which is one of the newest features having ability to take custom maps with you.

By logging into the Google Earth on the iPhone with the same credentials as the Google Maps Account the maps that are created by the users using the Maps Interface. Once the map is saved by using the option of ‘Save to My Maps’, the map can be accessed through the iPhone by its owner. If in case nobody has created a custom with this procedure, this feature will help to create one. With the coming winter season, this feature might help the people to know about the roads effectively.

The Google Earth features also help people out for searching out the places especially if they are on touring. The original release of Google Earth included 18 languages & the new version of Google Earth has 13 languages more, which takes the total to 31 languages in all. This application is free & is available through the iTunes Store.

The additional information about any location can be accessed easily with the newer version of Google Earth. Now touching the icon on the screen will give a small glow which will appear under the finger to make it clear that which icon is selected. If the finger touches more than one icon, a list of icons will be displayed as that anyone which is required can be chosen.

With all these advanced features of iPhone, it has become more facilitating to the people to use the new iPhone applications & also the iPhone users feel it more worth paying by getting these additional features.

Olá,

O Google Earth é um programa distribuído pela Google gratuitamente (possui versão profissional com mais recursos por 400 dólares) que mostra o globo terrestre em três dimensões a partir de fotografias de satélites obtidas de diversas fontes. Em fevereiro desse ano, a Google lançou o Google Earth 5, otimizando e trazendo novas funções ao programa.

Novidades do Google Earth 5

• O novo Google Earth 5 permite o usuário visualizar o histórico do lugar desejado, sendo possível verificar a expansão urbana, as calotas de gelo que derreteram, erosões em regiões costeiras etc.
• Nessa versão foi adicionada a camada Ocean, que permite o usuário “mergulhar” no oceano. “Na nova camada ocean, você pode mergulhar até o fundo dos oceanos, ver o conteúdo exclusivo de parceiros como a BBC e National Geographic, e explorar naufrágios em 3D como o do Titanic.”
• Modo passeio permite a gravação de um vídeo enquanto o usuário navega pelo programa, sendo possível inserir uma trilha sonora ou narração.

Links relacionados

Vídeos tutoriais do Google Earth 5

Download do Google Earth

Site oficial do programa

These alphabets were made using Google Earth images all taken in the Netherlands. There’s even a punctuation and numbers version. It’s amazing what natural and man-made structures look like when seen from above.

[Via: Boing Boing]

Google has finally updated the Google Earth iPhone app.
Google Earth 2.0 comes with some new features and overall greater performance.

New features:

• Login to Google Maps, and view your own created maps, or custom maps shared by others.
• Browse photos, Wikipedia articles, business information etc. more easily.
• Added new languages, now supporting a total of 31 languages.

Update/Download Google Earth 2.0 through the App Store on your iPhone to start enjoying the new features.

Official announcement and more details

coney island is back in new york’s control, hoorah!  after too many negotiations, excessive evictions and a sad summer season, the city and developer joe sitt finally reached an agreement last week.  mayor bloomberg, i can’t wait for next year!

more @ nytimes.com