I like maps, and maps of the world are my favourites. So seeing blaberize.com do a feature on desktop world wallpapers has made my friday. Here’s a pick of some of the best, but make sure you visit http://blaberize.com/2009/10/15-really-cool-world-map-wallpapers/ for the whole bunch.
One of the many applications on my iPhone is MotionX-GPS with gives you a lot of information from the GPS receiver built into the phone. It gives you proper long/lat coordinates for your position, calculates speed, direction and altitude and most interestingly can track your route over time and email you a Google Maps link and Google Earth file.
As I’m commuting further than I used to and am above ground for some of it I tested out the tracking on the train from London Victoria to East Croydon. It lost the signal a few times along the route (bridges and steep embankments didn’t help) but over all did a good job, you can view the route here: maps.google.co.uk.
Today I found a new way to challenge my London knowledge, which was a map of Zone One of the London Underground without any of the station names. You have 10 minutes to type as many of the station names as you can remember and watch as your answers get added to the map. I managed 52 out of the 63 stations which I was fairly happy with, but still had to kick myself when I saw the ones I’d missed. It instantly highlights the parts of London you never visit, for me there was a huge empty space in south West London which I had no idea about. Have a go yourself at www.sporcle.com/games/londontubecentral.php and see if you do better than 52…
It reminded me of a simliar game, with the same concept but on a much larger scale. At travelpod they have a flash game where you must place a flag on the map of the world to mark the location of cities and famous places with points are awarded for speed and accuracy. There are 12 levels of difficulty with cities becoming more and more obscure as you progress. Give it your best flag at www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq. Unfortunately I didn’t make the 30,000 threshold to get past level 6, I’m sure you can do better!
The Mapperz blog has highlighted a great interactive map of the activity around the country in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. Street level details shows the latest ariel photos of the site as well as altering the map to show activities over a particular time period.
An excellent example of how mapping and other media can be combined in a very usable way.
I like reading guides to London, it’s such a huge and varied city you can always find something new about an area you’ve lived or worked in for years.
Today I found a new site thanks to Read/WriteWeb which offers a different apporach to city guides. The IFeel series lets you browse maps of London, New York and Toronto finding things to do and places to go depending on how you few. Choose your mood from energetic, chilled, manly, sophisticated, romantic, naughty, manly and broke. The site is invite only so far but has some good potential to find hidden gems and personal favourites you may have missed around you.
Enjoy: ifeellondon.com, ifeelnyc.com and www.ifeeltoronto.com
This is a post I started writing a month ago but things have been busy recently. Better late than never…
There’s been quite a few sites and features which have caught my eye over the last few days, so here’s a little summary of what’s stood out for me:
Shiny Shiny’s website of the week combines two of my geeky interests – maps and photography. They’ve uncovered the Map of Strange which collates the unusual findings people make while browsing the aerial photos of Google Earth or Google Maps (or you online satellite imagery site of choice). (more…)
“Sites like CommunityWalk, Wayfaring and Platial add a whole other layer of stories, photos and even videos to maps that once only included street names and highway numbers.”
More at: www.lifehacker.com
