Ewan's Corner

Archive for the ‘Google’ Category

“Many people have no idea how many satellites orbit around the Earth. Now you can see the real-time positions of over 13,000 satellites updated every 30 seconds with Google Earth. The satellite positions come from a US government-sponsored database which Analytic Graphics, Inc., has interfaced with to make the data visible in 3D. Zoom around in space and pause to see the names of the satellites. Click on the satellite placemark icons to see more information on each one. Here is a YouTube video showing what the satellite visualization looks like. You can view the actual collection with AGI’s KML file in Google Earth. You can also watch it in your browser using the Earth plugin on this page by Google Earth Blog.”

~From the October 2008 issue of “The Sightseer” monthly newsletter for Google Earth.

“This KML network link visualizes all earth orbiting objects tracked by the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) using the satellite database processed by Analytical Graphics, Inc. using the Dynamic Geometry Library. All satellites are tracked in real-time and updated every 30 seconds.

USSTRATCOM has been tracking space objects since 1957 when the Soviets opened the space age with the launch of Sputnik I. Since then, they have recorded more than 26,000 space objects orbiting Earth. There are currently more than 12,000 man-made orbiting objects, the rest have re-entered Earth’s turbulent atmosphere and disintegrated, or survived re-entry and impacted the Earth. The space objects now orbiting Earth range from satellites weighing several tons to pieces of spent rocket bodies weighing under 10 pounds. About 3,000 space objects are operational satellites, the rest are space debris, retired satellites and rocket bodies left over from launches.

Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) develops commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) analysis software for land, sea, air and space that is relied upon by the national security and space communities. With more than 32,000 worldwide installations, the main applications of AGI technologies focus on battlespace management, geospatial intelligence, space systems and national defense programs. In addition to the STK product suite, AGI produces the desktop software applications Navigation Tool Kit and Orbit Determination Tool Kit; interactive visualization AGI Viewer software; and the embedded technology development tool 4DX. For more information about AGI or its commercially available software technologies, e-mail info@agi.com or explore www.agi.com.”

Local company Entelligence (SEO, web development) has filed a complaint with the South African Competition Commission against Google South Africa for “abuse of dominance in terms of Section S8(d)(i) of the Competition Act
89 of 1998, which prohibits a firm from “requiring or inducing a
supplier or customer to not deal with a competitor” (full release here).

Entelligence is a qualified adwords company, and if their claims are true then Google South Africa appears to have been underhanded and is guilty of dodgy business practice.

Links:

• Google Africa Blog
• Google Africa Discussion group

Update: Mike Stopforth spotted this yesterday… also Elan Lohmann

A thought-provoking work of fiction (but with historically accurate quotations) – ENGINEERS’ DREAMS by George Dyson (Edge).

“When Ed examined the traffic, he realized that Google was doing more than mapping the digital universe. Google doesn’t merely link or point to data. It moves data around. Data that are associated frequently by search requests are locally replicated–establishing physical proximity, in the real universe, that is manifested computationally as proximity in time. Google was more than a map. Google was becoming something else.” …

“Any system simple enough to be understandable will not be complicated enough to behave intelligently; and any system complicated enough to behave intelligently will not be simple enough to understand.”

An excellent Google Earth layer from South African Tourism – http://earth.southafrica.net/.
Simply get Google Earth if you don’t already have a copy, head over to the http://earth.southafrica.net/ site and click “Launch South African Layer” (or “Start Exploring” below it). Your browser should give you the option to open the KML file with Google Earth – it will then download (currently 520k) and Google Earth should load automatically. If not, just save the KML file anywhere, and open it from Google Earth itself (File –> Open…).
(found here)

On Wednesday Google launched (in beta, surprise :-) Google Maps for Mobile with My Location (aka the “magical blue circle on your map”).
This is fascinating technology – it allows Google Maps, running on your mobile device, to relatively accurately calculate your current location without the use of GPS. Overview video here, but in essence your location is estimated using information from nearby cellphone towers.
Not so accurate at the moment in South Africa, at least not here in Durban – in the Derivco offices it currently plots me as 23 Km away just outside Umlazi, and on the way in to work this morning my location bounced from Spaghetti Junction to way up the south coast and back to Durban Central. However it works here and accuracy seems to be improving (last night all I could get was “your current location is temporarily unavailable”) – I assume the more people running around using mobile devices with cellular connections and GPS receivers, the faster accuracy will improve.
The tinfoil hats are worried as usual, but the possibilities are endless and exciting – with half as many mobile phones as people on the planet (3.3 billion!) and only about 15%(?) of them GPS enabled, this is overdue functionality. Way to go, Google.
Links:

• Slashdot coverage
• c|net article Google Maps for Mobile adds ‘My Location’ feature