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Links: Sardegna3D, 3D icons, 3D Warehouse for builders

  • TechCrunch agrees: Google’s YouTube caving in to Turkish censors is a terrible idea and a precedent for Google’s other user-generated communities — with Google Earth Community especially vulnerable to the demands of paranoid governments.
  • Sardegna3D (beta) is a 3D client for Windows that lets you browse the Italian island of Sardinia. It works well, though the GUI looks a lot like a copy of Google Earth 3 (not that there is anything wrong with that:-) Just as with France’s 3D Géoportail client, I still don’t see the merit of shackling a localized dataset to a specific client, especially if the client does not provide enhanced functionality. Much better is to free the data and place it inside the wider context of a global viewer like Google Earth or NASA World Wind.
  • This is really worth a look: bdkowert.com builds a 3D icon for the KML files showing FON’s wifi hotspots (which you can download under the POIs tab). What I like about it is that the use of 3D is not a gimmick in this case, but adds information. Download it from Google Earth Warehouse and check it out for yourself.

    fonicon.jpg

  • A story about the world’s most clueless teacher. She wants to block Google Maps at school.
  • Construction behemoth McGraw-Hill Construction has started putting its Sweets portfolio of 3D models of building products into 3D Warehouse. Here is the press release, and here is the collection in 3D Warehouse, which comes with more info:

    Sweets is in the process of building the largest collection of professional grade 3D building product models that are easy to find and download. In May, 2007, these high quality models will be organized by the CSI MasterFormat indexing familiar to Sweets users. As we build this collection, please come back and check its progress. The grand launch occurs at the American Institute of Architects annual convention May 3 – May 5, 2007.

  • Indian journalist and blogger Shiv Aroor is taking screenshots of Indian military bases in Google Earth and posting them online preemptively, “in case Google does buckle and censor its eyes over India. That would be such a tragedy.” (Via Sacred Media Cow)
  • 3PointD posts notes of the mapping panel at SXSW, chaired by Rev. Dan Catt.