Tilting at windmills for a better tomorrow.
Late to the party, just realized that Flickr provides an interface for “geotagging” photos — associating images or sets of images with points on the globe, overlaid on Yahoo! Maps. Here are a few of my sets in the context of their location on earth:
With more care and precision, you can get much more detailed, e.g. I could drag each of the Albany Bulb images to the exact spot on the bulb where the sculpture was found.
Miles and I tracked down our first geocache today – less than a mile from our house. Most caches are tucked deep in the wilderness, but a surprising number are stashed right under your nose; you could walk by them a thousand times and never have a clue. Hardcore geocachers look down on caching in residential areas, but wanted to start easy. M scored a pair of super-bouncy balls and left a Matchbox tow truck. Think he was a bit disappointed – “surprise” may have meant “new Lego set” in his mind. Opportunity to talk about the pleasures of discovery. Have heard of some caches containing opera tickets, c-notes, world peace, etc. Reality is probably that most will contain key fobs and hair clips.
Nabbed an account on Sanoodi, a regretfully named Web 2.0-ish site that lets users upload XML (.gpx) track output from GPS devices, which it maps directly onto Google maps to share with other hikers/bikers/runners. I’ll be using the site to store tracks for posterity. Started with my bike route along the Ohlone Greenway from home to UC Berkeley.
Thanks Patrick Cates