Hee!

[eric_darling]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/did-microsoft-wipe-apple-off-the-map/2005/07/26/1122143810819.html?oneclick=true

Apple wiped off the map!

[Corey]

This link gives me a subscription sign-up page. I find for some of these subscriber news site links I have to go back and copy the original link rather than the actual page URL. :o

[Mark]

Was this the story that you wanted Eric: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25/msn_earth_deletes_aple/

From what I've read it's becuase Microsoft uses USGS data that is over ten years old, which means it's before the Apple headquarters were built.

[eric_darling]

Yep. They changed the page. No big deal - Mark's story is essentially the same.

One question, though... How useful is data that's over a decade old?

[gbrown]

...
One question, though... How useful is data that's over a decade old?
For landform use and many uses in the earth sciences, very useful. You've got to start somewhere... when I worked for the Illinois State Geological Survey as a grad student back in the early 70's I was going over arial photographs from 1930 on up to the present.

Besides... it is VERY expensive to gather high-resolution photos of everywhere. Yeh... ya got the bird in the sky, but most of the high-res stuff you see has actually been taken by fixed-wing recon flights. That's a LOT of flying. Also... building a consistent and cloud-free contiguous database is a real pain.

GcB

[eric_darling]

I suppose that means Google either has more money or more interest in this kind of a project. Their database seems nearly current in most respects.

Also, NASA makes this sort of stuff available for free (where available from US Govt. sources) in their program called World Wind:
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

[bnkrazy]

You guys might find earth.google.com worth a look (if you haven't already). It combines different views so that you can do all sorts of neat things like "see" what it would look like to stand at the foot of the Alps, etc. Also NYC has a really neat 3D view that actually shows what the city looks like... :yes

Attached are some screenshots of Manhattan and Mt. St. Helens.

[gbrown]

:yes :yes :yes Sweet!!! :yes :yes :yes

I could even see my old red pickup truck in the driveway.