Google Earth Replacing Desktop Globes For Many Scientists

from the unintended-beneficiaries dept

Tue, Aug 1st 2006 4:42pm — Mike Masnick

It's always interesting to see how new technologies get used in totally unexpected ways -- sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. There was a lot of complaining a few months back that Google Earth was a security risk by revealing certain sites to anyone with a computer. However, on the flip side, it appears that various scientists are embracing Google Earth, realizing that it's a great platform to use with much of their research. It wasn't one of the intended uses -- but it does show how creating an open platform that encourages development (rather than a locked down one that tries to charge for everything) can lead to new and innovative uses.

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12 Comments

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Whatever he said, 1 Aug 2006 @ 4:54pm

I'm cool with it for now....
For the moment you can't see my backyard very well on Google Earth, but I expect someday you will, for nothing. As much as I appreciate technology, this one illustrates potential issues.

As cool and usefull as it is, I dread the day my mother calls and says, "what are you growing in your backyard." Legal or not, its gonna suck.
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Whatever I said, 1 Aug 2006 @ 5:12pm

I'm cool with it
You can see my back yard very well on Google Earth. It's really cool and is from a few years ago.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2006 @ 5:27pm

Odd that this should come up just now...
I spent the afternoon at work (don't tell my boss) using Google Map to peruse my home town in New York.

Checked out the house I grew up in, my elementary and high schools, the ball field and playgrounds that we played on as kids, the diner that was my first job, and on and on. Memories from 40 and more years ago came to the forefront as I viewed the high-res satellite images.

Way cool!
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Adam, 1 Aug 2006 @ 5:28pm

Re: I'm cool with it for now....
...dude...

if you can see it from the air, you're an idiot for growing it that way anyway.

thecopshavehellicopters,buddy.

oi, kids these days.
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Whatever he said, 1 Aug 2006 @ 5:35pm

Where does it end?
I use it -- my nav system and mapquest have let me down more than once.

So a future G-earth would be at least a nearly real-time, continuous streaming image, with enough resolution for a botonous to give me advice remotely, and scientists could track their walruses and dolphins, and maybe I could tie in my daughter's cell phone, and my wife's, and ... hmm
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Whatever he said, 1 Aug 2006 @ 5:41pm

Re: Re: I'm cool with it for now....
It's legal in Cali, with a doctor's recommendation, and within limits. Believe me, the man isn't looking for me (he's looking for the guy I lived next door to five years ago).

Neighbors are worse, far too many believe everything they see on TV.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2006 @ 5:47pm

Re: Re: I'm cool with it for now....
Consider that if he can't see his backyard on Google Earth, he probably lives in an area where the cops don't have helicopters.
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rbhrulez, 1 Aug 2006 @ 6:39pm

Google Earth
Google Earth helped me figure out why my basement kept flooding. My yard is shaped like a bowl and was causing water to pool against the foundation.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2006 @ 6:44pm

Re: Re: Re: I'm cool with it for now....
No, we can't see our yard (much less our road, even), and we definitely have the choppers overhead.
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Ringold, 2 Aug 2006 @ 1:13am

Heh, neighbors where I used to live had a pool that wasn't screened in. Invariably every day this older woman would go get some sun in one of just a few bathing suites.

Upon checking, just as I suspected, sure enough, you can JUST BARELY make her out. At another site, I think MSNs, can't see her too well, but thanks to the angle view thing and a decent rez, can tell she left the back sliding door open.

I know somewhere, somehow, one of these services has caught some folks in public sex and nobodies just noticed it yet. For now, they're probably protected by being just about 10 pixels long.. but.. in the future..
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Rajio, 2 Aug 2006 @ 6:51am

yakov
In Soviet Russia earth googles YOU!
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2006 @ 8:15am

What if you Google Earth someone that is already "Google Earthing"....now thats deep
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