Friedbeef’s Tech

A couple of days ago Google Maps had a huge update with tons of satellite images that were previously only made available to Google Earth.

This means that sites like FlashEarth just got a whole more lot fun for people who live outside the US. For the uninitiated, Google Earth is an application which displays satellite images of the entire earth and allows zooming down to an incredible degree.

Previously, Google Maps did not have the same level of detail as their Earth application, but all that changed two days back. What this means is that without installing any software, simply using your web browser, you can use FlashEarth to get from here…..

and zoom down all the way to this level!

For all those who’ve never been to Malaysia, the picture is a view of the KLCC Petronas Twin Towers, the set of buildings which until recently, used to be the two tallest buildings in the world (surpassed only by Taipei 101)

This is by no means a substitute to Google Earth as it lacks a lot of GE’s heavy duty functionality, for example my favourite like the ability to tilt natural terrain - take a look at this tilted picture of the Grand Canyon from Google Earth… Simply breathtaking!

…anyway, it does however mean you can have a much easier time exploring the globe with just your browser.

If you’re into globetrotting, try visiting locations from around the world right from your desktop. Some great locations can be found here.

In the meantime, here’s some Malaysian locations to get you started:

KLCC Twin Towers - 3′09′28 N 101′42′43 E
National Science Center - 3′08′57 N 101′38′42 E
Merdeka Square - 3′08′52 N 101′41′36 E

Bonus Link: Google maps are also available for Mars and the Moon.

Related Links:

Flash Earth
Google Earth
Google Moon
Google Mars
How Google Earth Works
Google-Maps-Mania Mashup site
Add Google maps to your site
Google Earth Hacks
Google Earth Blog
Google Earth Sightseeing

Technorati Tags: google+earth, google, flashearth, google+mars, google+moon

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In a world where information overload is increasingly common - visualisation projects, dealing with how we view information and the design behind it, is becoming vital to a good user experience.

It is said that most people respond the most to visual cues, which is no surprise - After all, a picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words. 10X10 news is a service which grabs headlines every hour from Reuters, BBC and the NY TImes, and displays pictures from those sources on a 10X10 grid, and ranks it by relevance, giving you a pictorial look at world news and what is happening at this very hour at a single glance, with links to the actual stories available.

10×10 news also keeps an archive so it’s possible to extend this functionality going back almost 3 years now. Absolutely free of course - just like all the services blogged about on this site.

Related Links:

10X10 News
Yahoo interenet history (Inspired by the 10X10 project)
BBC Word Edition
Reuters World News
New York Times International News

Technorati Tags: news, 10×10, tenbyten, design, bbc, yahoo, reuters, nyt, visualization

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Whenever I’m writing anything on the web, be it in on a forum, comments, or simply filling up a form, one of my biggest problems is that I find my spelling to be absolutely atrocious. Having grown up on word processors which highlight my every spelling mistake, I never bothered to learn basic principles like “I before E except after C”.
Orangoo positions itself as a quick solution to this problem by spell checking entire blocks text you paste into it and highlighting any potential errors.

Just like MS-Word, any errors are underlined and suggestions pop up to help you out.

How Many Languages Can You Misspell in?

What Orangoo also does in an attempt to set itself apart, is to have the ability to spell check in multiple languages. At the time of posting it had up to 28 different languages, including German, Spanish, French and interestingly enough.. Indonesian. Being somewhat proficient in it’s sister language - Malay, I was able to put the Indonesian spell check through it’s paces, and found it to be quite accurate.

No I Really Meant To Say Orangoo!

One thing which I did not like was the fact that Orangoo could not learn any of your new words, and hence would perpetually highlight words which were not mistakes just because it could not recognise them, and could not learn.

English - American vs British

Orangoo also does not seem draw a distinction between British and American English, as the both ways of spelling certain of words (eg. Color vs Colour) are accepted as correct in the same block of text, where as a general rule, you should either be using American English or British English - not a mix of both.

Related Links

• Orangoo - The online multi language spell checker
• Google- Type in a word and Google suggests a correct spelling for it
• Your Offline Word Processor (eg. Microsoft Word ) - Your best option if you only want to spell check English, but requires the right software. Orangoo does it online, for free, and in multiple languages.
• Spellbound Extension for Firefox- This seems to have stopped development for the newer versions of Firefox , which is a great shame.

Technorati Tags: orangoo, spell+checker, spellbound

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