MxGPS 9, “a user-friendly application to transfer data between ESRI’s ArcMap application and Garmin GPS,” now lets you download waypoints directly into Google Earth as well.
RealTrack Mobile version 1.5, which allows the tracking of GPS-enabled PocketPC PDAs in real time via GPRS or wifi (using a server), now lets you see your army of users in real time on Google Earth — useful, for example, if you’re managing a fleet. Or, come to think of it, for some cool real-world as-yet-unthought-of strategy games out in the wilderness. Capture the flag, anyone?
The session entitled Earth 101 is one of the most anticipated workshops of the conference. Experts from Google will show how SketchUp can be used with Google Earth to create buildings, bridges and other structures and then position those structures anywhere on the globe to view them in context.
RLake, who appears to be one of the developers of the original GML markup language and who blogs at Geo-Web, has written an interesting series comparing KML with GML.
In Part I – Feeding the web with Geographic Information, he wonders why KML is considered revolutionary if GML went down that same road five years ago. He concludes that it is the whole Google Earth package that is revolutionary. I’d add that a markup language for geographic data is obvious, even if it is with hindsight, and that there are only so many ways to mark up geographic data (and one best way, probably).
In Part II – GML and KML, he provides (tongue-half-in-cheek) instructions for making your own Google Earth. It all comes down to how well you style your marked-up data, and Google Earth does this better than most.
Finally, in GML and KML Syntax he compares the two markup languages in terms of their purpose and abilities. There is plenty of interesting stuff on that blog.
It seems Geoblogger’s Rev Dan Catt just couldn’t resist the temptation, so now we have Google Maps tiles in Google Earth, courtesy of some extremely cool hacking. Definitely worth checking out. (Don’t forget to play with altitudes. Unfortunately, this one just proves too much for VirtualPC for me to obtain a screenshot of San Francisco with my Mac.)
[Update 10:02 UTC: Wow. It seems like the good Rev may have been beaten to it by Germany’s Bernhard Sterzbach (not that it’s a competition or anything:-). Here is his Google Maps overlay. I’m in no position to judge their relative merits. BTW, as if any more justification for this hack is needed, Bernhard points out: “When I was entering placemarks for my recent holiday in Japan I noticed that Google Earth resolution (outside Tokyo) is fairly limited but Google Maps shows all of Japan with excellent detail.” (Brought to my attention via LammiaGazza, who has screenshots.)]
My only problem with reporting on Mapdex is that I already used superlatives describing them last time, so I am a little at a loss for words for the three posts they published today. Just the facts, then:
Mapdex publishes the code for converting ArcIMS to KML (using Cold Fusion).
And the clincher, Mapdex is now fully integrated with Google Earth. Every layer and service; even WMS layers. There are even unexpected bonuses, like pretty icons, displays of raw metadata for services, and a history page, so “you can see how a mapservice has evolved over time.”
After posting about the global place directory Tageo three weeks ago, I emailed them and suggested they add a link to an automatically generated KML placemark for each location in their database. They said they were looking into it. Today, I happened by there and noticed that now you get exactly that.
Suddenly, Tageo rocks as an ancillary to Google Earth: 2,667,417 coordinate pairs to go look up, a very forgiving search function (if it doesn’t get a direct hit, it makes clever suggestions) and a linked list of nearby places. I’m adding it to Ogle Earth’s list of essential tools.
Notes on the political, social and scientific impact of networked digital maps and geospatial imagery, with a special focus on Google Earth.