The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
By Mark on October 23, 2008
Luxembourg is a small country in the north-west of Europe, surrounded by the countries of Belgium which includes the upland region of Ardenne to the the north and west, Germany to the east which includes the Eifel highlands and France to the west. It is also one of the oldest counties in Europe. The climate is quite continental, in the south the country has warm summers and Autumns and that is where the grapes ripen to produce beautiful wines. But up inthe north of the country the winters can be very cold and harsh at times. There are sizeable forests around Luxembourg, but the grounds in some areas is hilly and rocky with little fertile soil.
This is a satellite of Europe with Luxembourg in the middle, taken from Google Earth.
This is a satellite image from Google Earth of Luxembourg in Europe.
This is a satellite image of the capital city of Luxembourg, Luxembourg City, taken from Google Earth.
The economy of Luxembourg is depends still on Iron and Steel industries which are still quite important, and the light industries including textiles, chemicals and food products are starting to grow and improving all the time as well is the farming industry. Luxembourg is still a major banking centre, even though we are having problems world wide at the moment. The main trading partners are Belgium, France and Germany, but trading around Europe is still strong.
This is a picture taken from panoramio of the capital city of Luxembourg.
This is a picture taken from panoramio of the capitals city street.
Luxembourg was occupied many years ago by the Romans, and then in the 5th century it was taken over by the Franks. The Duchy of Luxembourg was created in the 1354, it was seized by the Burgundy in 1443, to which it was then passed over to the Habsburgs in 1477and then on to Spain in 1555. The French occupied Luxembourg between 1684 to 1697. The first ever count of Luxembourg was Conrad in 1060. After the war of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), the country was passed back to the Habsburgs. Then in 1815 the country was then passed on to the Netherlands in 1815, but joined the Belgiums in the revolt of 1830. In 1831 Luxembourg was divided, the Walloon-speaking region became a part of Belgium and the rest remained with the Netherlands. In 1839 the Dutch part became The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, with it’s own government. When the king of the Netherlands died in 1890, the two countries ended up with different royal families as the king did not have an heir to take over. In 1921 Luxembourg entered into a economic union with Belgium, and then the Netherlands joined in 1948 creating a union named as Benelux Economic Union, and it became the first free trading union in Europe. Luxembourg is a member of the European Community.
Advertising in Google’s 3D World Wide Web
By Nick on October 18, 2008
As Google Earth becomes more accessible to the masses, people will use it for much more than sightseeing. In many ways, it is already a portal to the world wide web - you can explore the globe and open up web sites laden with information about the country, city or building you are looking at. In many cases, images, video and web pages can actually be viewed inside Google Earth so you don’t have to open a separate web browser at all. Alternatively, with the available API, Google Earth can be embedded into websites, so you can access the Earth from your browser instead of accessing your browser from Earth. The two are becoming so integrated that Google Earth is sure to become the 3D version of the world wide web.
Opportunities for profit - advertising in Google Earth
This is all pure speculation on my part, but since Google Earth has more users than the population of Brazil, businesses would be foolish not to consider targeting their advertising at that ocean of potential customers. But what would be the best way to go about it? If Google Earth is a virtual replica of the real world, why not create a virtual replica of your real world business to place inside it?
The above screenshot is taken from the city of Westport in Ireland. Westport is one of the cities that took part in Google’s “Cities in 3D” program, an effort to get local governments to actively participate in recreating their cities in 3D for Google Earth.
The benefits to cities such as Westport include the ability to use the 3D model to assess the impact of proposed buildings, traffic flow, and disaster management in a simulated environment. On top of this, they’ve provided local businesses with a platform on which to sell themselves.
CyberCity 3D claims to be the first company to offer 3D advertising solutions to businesses wishing to utilize Google Earth. They design everything from individual buildings to entire metropolitan areas for local governments. According to their website, they’ve already covered Hollywood, Pasadena and Santa Monica. You’ll need at least version 4.3 of Google Earth with 3D buildings turned on (specifically “Photorealistic”) to see the cities. Here’s Hollywood, complete with bizarre floating buildings:
San Francisco below, is a city that is ready to be painted by individual businesses, if CyberCity 3D don’t get to it first, but there are many more completed cities according to the Google Earth Blog.:
Real Estate shopping in a 3D world
Perhaps one of the most obvious uses of 3D is in real estate. Wouldn’t it be great to fly over a town you’re interested in, swooping down on available accommodations and seeing what they look like from all possible angles in the context of their neighborhood? I found one real estate search that offered such a service, but you have to subscribe to their mailing list to get the 3D layers to actually see the locations in Google Earth - fine if you’re in the market, but not so good for me.
If you were selling your home, one option would be to use a company such as Depict3d.com to build a 3D model of your house for show in Google Earth. This one below is on sale via Heather and Lay Estate Agents and looks beautiful. Trust me, I took a virtual trip to Cardiff to see it for myself.
Conclusion
Whatever your business, creating a unique 3D model and attaching information about your business , even if it is your own home, seems like a sensible form of advertising as we dive into a three-dimensional world wide web. I’ve made a start on my own little advert, but have a lot to learn yet…
Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment
My home town Crowborough, East Sussex, England,UK.
By Mark on October 16, 2008
I have written a post about Crowborough before, but this time I would like to give you my own version of this large town in the north of East Sussex, England. Crowborough is within 6 to 7 miles south of an even larger town in the name of Tunbridge Wells, Kent (which is the county next to East Sussex), and about 6 to 7 miles south is the town of Uckfield also in East Sussex. Further south is the beautiful seaside town of Eastbourne, where my parents now live in the Sovereign Harbour. A good hour’s drive south-west of Crowborough is the mighty city of Brighton and Hove on the coast. By train from Crowborough to the the capital city of London takes an hour roughly. But enough about these places lets talk about Crowborough. I have lived in this town for almost all of my life so we are talking 30+ years. I moved to this town around about 1976/77 when I was a toddler. I have seen many changes over the years. For example we used to have a Safeway supermarket, which was taken over by Morrisons supermarket and then knocked down to be rebuilt as a large Morrisons Superstore. Waitrose supermarket became a Superstore. The Bugatti’s nightclub used to be known as Valentines. And the village of Crowborough turned into a town. The monument of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, the british author of Sherlock Holmes, stands in the centre of the town because Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle used to live here.
This is a picture taken from Geograph of the Statue of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle at the Crowborough Cross taken by David Brooker. Other names who have lived in Crowborough are Tony Stratton-Smith the well known rock music manager of Genesis and David Jason known as Del boy in only Fools and Horses, Jack Frost in Frost, as well as Pa Larkin in Darling Buds of May.
This is a picture taken from panoramio of 100 Acre Wood, Ashdown Forest,Crowborough.Crowborough is also well known for Ashdown Forest and also St.John’s Forest. Ashdown Forest surrounds the small village of Hartfield and this is where A.A.Milne the author of Winnie the Pooh,used to live and you will find Pooh bridge there.
This is a picture taken from panoramio of the famous winnie the pooh, Pooh Bridge in Hartfield near Crowborough.
The town has quite a few pubs. The Crowborough Cross is the town’s most central and popular pub, but also you have the White Hart, Blue Anchor, Whitehill Tavern, Crow and Gate, Plough and Horses, Boars Head and a few others as well. The mens Crowborough Athletic football club play in the Ryman League. Crowborough is a nice friendly town and there may not be a huge amount to do in the evenings, but with the Goldsmiths leisure centre and the pubs and clubs, and a wine bar as well, there are things to do, so come and visit. If you would like to find out more information about Crowborough please look at my other post about this town and it will give you directions and places to visit. Thanks for reading.
Posted in Europe | 3 Comments
Google Earth API Examples
By Nick on October 7, 2008
If you thought Google Earth was just a 3D map, you couldn’t possibly be more wrong, with the API (Application Programming Interface), people can write programs that use Google Earth to do almost anything! Not only that, it all runs from your internet browser so you don’t even have to launch Google Earth.
In this article, I’ll highlight some of the examples of the creative uses of Google Earth, but in order to try the examples, you ‘ll need to install the Google Earth Plugin.
When you click the above link, you’ll be presented with a regular map, but notice the “Earth” link the corner? That will switch you from map mode to the very cool 3D Google Earth mode, so your map…
turns into this…
I had to look up the meaning of “China Syndrome”, so if you’re curious like me, here it is:
Theoretical consequence of a core meltdown, when the heavy molten mass of highly radioactive material actually goes straight through the vessel in which it had been contained and down to the earth’s core. In other words, China syndrome occurs when an out-of-control reactor burns its way downwards towards the earth’s core. From the USA, it would appear to be heading for China.
That explains why this program shows two opposite ends of the globe. Here’s New Zealand, which is directly opposite Portugal…
As interesting as you would expect this to be, it seems the opposite to almost everywhere is water!
If you think your general knowledge of geography is good, prove it! This fun game asks you to find locations around the globe as quickly as possible. What you have to do is drag the globe around so that the city being serched for is directly under the red box. It’s not easy without any landmarks!
Take a walk around town with this little demo. I have no idea what city you get put in, but it’s fun nonetheless.
Similar to the First Person Camera, but even more fun, Monster Milktruck puts you at the wheel of a milktruck, and let’s you zip around the city of your choice, in and out of 3D buildings. Here I am getting sour in Tokyo…
Probably the most impressive of these examples is the Driving Simulator. Type in your departure point and destination, and let Google calculate the times, directions, and give you both a 3D map which you can interact with, as well as a standard map with your plotted course. Best of all, when you click “Start”, a little animated car drives along the course and the 3D view follows it along its way. Very cool, indeed.
Conclusion
All these little applications show the potential of the Google Earth platform. Independent developers are sure to expand on these ideas and come up with even bigger and better things, so the 3D web is getting closer and closer all the time. I’ll leave you with this short, promotional video, explaining more about the Google Earth API, and you can see some of what I’ve talked about in action.
Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 Comments
Tenerife, Canary Islands.
By Mark on October 6, 2008
This is my post about the largest of the Canary Islands in north-west of Morocco, Africa. It is a well known Island for holiday makers and it is a place that I have never even visited myself, so here we go.
The Canary Islands belong to the European country of Spain. It is a volcanic Island in Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of Africa. The population in 2006 was 852,945. To which the capital city of the Island Santa Cruz de Tenerife was 221,627. The Island is known for her volcanic peak of MT TEIDE
which is 3,718 metres (12,200 ft) in height. Tenerife has two airports one in the north and the other in the south they are Rodeos Airport (north), the smaller of the two, is located near the metropolitan area Santa Cruz-La Laguna. It serves inter-insular flights as well as national and European flights, and for the last two years, a weekly service to Venezuela. Reina Sofía Airport (south) is the busiest Airport in Tenerife, ranking 7th in Spain. It typically serves the mass of regular and charter flights constantly arriving from most of Europe.
This is a picture taken from Google Earth of the Canary Islands, Spain, Europe.
This is a picture of the Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, taken from Google Earth.
This is a satellite image of the capital city of Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife taken from Google Earth.
With her history and tourism I feel you would learn more from wikipedia so with assistance of wikipedia at the bottom of the page is a link to the website, which will give you all he information you need to know about the Canary Islands, Tenerife and the capital city Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Thanks. It has alot of wonderful sites to see, with black and gold beaches, restaurants, pubs, wine bars and nightclubs. And plenty of tourist shops with stacks of tourist goodies. But the best site apart from the sea from the cliffs is Mount Tide. which is an amazing site. Also hotels, hostels, bed and breakfast places you will always find a reasonably well priced site. It is a very lively Island with a cracking nightlife and amazingly the temperatures never really change throughout the year so which ever time you go it will nearly always be nice.
This is a picture taken from panoramio of the capital city Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the Harbour.
This is a picture taken from the capital city of Tenerife, Canary islands, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, taken from Google Earth.
This is a picture taken from panoramio of a nudist beach in southern Tenerife. And with a big thanks to MR BUN his website playa-de-la-tejita-nude-beach. learn more about nudist beaches Tenerife, shows more of the nudist beaches on the Island and the other Canary Islands, it is brilliant.
- Learn about the Canary Islands on wikipedia:
- Learn about Tenerife on wikipedia:
- Learn about Santa Cruz de Tenerife(capital city) on wikipedia:
- Find the Canary Islands on Google Earth:
- Find Tenerife on Google Earth:
- Find Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Google Earth: