Re: I like new Google Maps terrain option

In article <0d3bab1e-2743-4cdf-885a-81315b4f08a1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
pmh <pmhilton@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jan 29, 4:19 pm, "the Moderator" <sparky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
"rick++" <rick...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:c25d850a-8a12-4573-abae-e214b60b7fe4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've been reviewing some of my recent peak-bagging hikes
in the newish Google Maps Terrain option and found its a
very useful planning tool. I presume it works with various
path-drawing overlay tools out there.
The maps are a stingy with named features, so it helps to
have topos and GPS waypoints too.

Download Google Earth.

Have.
On my cell phone, lap and desk tops.

As I posted above, I find Google Earth to be next to useless in the
Maine backwoods. The resolution is so vague that roads and streams are
difficult and sometimes impossible to locate; foot trails, campsites,
boat landings, overgrown tote roads suitable for hiking, etc. are
invisible.

Well, this is why the USGS does ground truth.

I went over to Google last week to have lunch with a former grad student
when a co-worker working on GE sat near by. We caught up on events. I
asked him how many cartographers he had in his group (he's a programmer).
He said None. They are just going with Mercator. And limiting their
geoids to 85N and 85S. It's not a topo map. It's road resolution.

I had a further separate discussion at a meeting held by the French
consulate of SF and the French space agency. Reps from GE, Microsoft
Terra server and Yahoo! were there. For purposes of fair disclosure, I
got a Terra Server shirt (a few years ago from a guy now missing named
Jim Gray), which caused my friend Keith (the one above)
to give me a GE shirt and a presumption of fair time a couple years back.
No one yet knows how a business model for this stuff will development.
They will all to a T deny use of their products for people who
get in trouble hiking to avoid liability
(they know that ultimately some one will sue them). It's only for
trying to locate your house. It's proof of concept.

I find that some of the layers, the aerial photos are over exposed (Half
Dome is a good example, also playas (dry lake beds)). It's very clear
to me that lots of these internet computer people are idealistic and
well meaning when dealing with geospatial data. But they didn't know the land
surface area of the earth (I sat there and did a 2 sig. digit
calculation), or the issues of how to collect data, etc. They had great
stories to tell, problem stories, Katrina was one tragic one.

--
.

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