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Maps Blog — Aug 2008

Aug

22

20 08

SK8R Nation on Push

Canadian web site, Push , just rolled out their Virtual Earth integration to help skaters and snowboarders (ok, skiers too) find their local skate parks ski resorts (coming soon), respectively. Users can search and view extreme sports locations on a Microsoft Virtual Earth map, aerial photo and in some spots Bird's Eye Photos. The Bird's Eye photos make for some nice visualizations if you want to really check out the different sites. Additionally, you can submit information for letting them know where there's a specific skate park or ski resort by completing the form and sending it into them. Yes, I used to skateboard; and, yes I'm now retired as I would kill myself trying just a simple ollie. L. CP Read More Canadian web site, Push , just rolled out their Virtual Earth integration to help skaters and snowboarders (ok, skiers too) find their local skate parks ski resorts (coming soon), respectively. Users can search and view extreme sports locations on a Microsoft Virtual Earth map, aerial photo and in some spots Bird's Eye Photos. The Bird's Eye photos make for some nice visualizations if you want to really check out the different sites. Additionally, you can submit information for letting them know where there's a specific skate park or ski resort by completing the form and sending it into them. Yes... Read More
Aug

22

20 08

Microsoft Virtual Earth Partner Program

Do you love Virtual Earth? Do you want to participate in generating revenue from Virtual Earth ? Do you run a development shop that is building some crazy, sexy applications that push the limits of geospatial and Virtual Earth? Then, you need to be a Microsoft Virtual Earth Partner! I'm out there sweating blood and tears to get people to use and license Virtual Earth, but we seem to have a shortage of local Virtual Earth Certified Partners in which to refer our customers to for help - this is where you come in. We're looking for some qualified partners to handle local development in their respective markets. We need partners all over the world, so if you're interested there are a few steps to get you there: If you aren’t already, you must become a Microsoft Partner. Open new windows of opportunity for your organization. Enroll in the Data Visualization Specialization now. Get trained in Data Visualization with Virtual Earth. Check out the DVS learning path . Get started by reviewing the exam preparation guide . Prepare by taking the Virtual Earth DVS training, “Developing Map-based Solutions Using Microsoft Virtual Earth,” an in-depth online training and self-assessment... Read More Do you love Virtual Earth? Do you want to participate in generating revenue from Virtual Earth ? Do you run a development shop that is building some crazy, sexy applications that push the limits of geospatial and Virtual Earth? Then, you need to be a Microsoft Virtual Earth Partner! I'm out there sweating blood and tears to get people to use and license Virtual Earth, but we seem to have a shortage of local Virtual Earth Certified Partners in which to refer our customers to for help - this is where you come in. We're looking for some qualified partners to handle local development in their respective... Read More
Aug

21

20 08

Photosynth Released - Now, Let's Mash it...

Feel free to bypass my blog and download Photosynther now . Photosynther is the client software to create your own Photosynth's viewable in the browser. Some of this post may look familiar to you folks who leverage search engine cache, but I've added some Virtual Earth integration to the post so get ready to be excited (again). :) Ever since the launch of Photosynth there's been much discussion about the natural synergy of it and Microsoft Virtual Earth . Well, it's now official that you can begin additional speculation on what it means that we've moved the Photosynth team into the Virtual Earth product group. No longer is Photosynth just a Live Labs research project - it now has full funding and backing from the Virtual Earth team. It helps that we get all of the people that worked on it too. With that said, Live Labs has released Photosynther allowing you to make your own Photosynths and host them in our Synth Cloud Service. Holy smokes - this is a lot to digest. Ready? Photosynther is released into the wild. Yay! We have a cloud service for hosting the synth you create. You get up to 20 GB of hosting storage for your synths. You can embed your synths in your Virtual Earth applications... Read More Feel free to bypass my blog and download Photosynther now . Photosynther is the client software to create your own Photosynth's viewable in the browser. Some of this post may look familiar to you folks who leverage search engine cache, but I've added some Virtual Earth integration to the post so get ready to be excited (again). :) Ever since the launch of Photosynth there's been much discussion about the natural synergy of it and Microsoft Virtual Earth . Well, it's now official that you can begin additional speculation on what it means that we've moved the Photosynth team into the Virtual Earth... Read More
Aug

19

20 08

(Silverlight + Virtual Earth) * (Traffic...

A little linear algebra for you Canadians, eh? No less than 24 hours after I post " A Few Virtual Earth / Silverlight Demo Applications " I get an email from our Canadian Virtual Earth Sales Solution Specialist, Mike Pastushak, that The Weather Network has just released their new Silverlight / Virtual Earth Desktop Traffic Application - Traffic Eye . The app uses Silverlight 2 Beta 2 and Virtual Earth tiles to serve up a robust desktop application interface for navigating and exploring traffic information. At the time of launch the only information available is for areas in Ontario (the province, not the city fellow SoCals) where Toronto resides. For those cities, you can get flow data or weather condition information for the given route, plus a ton of live web cameras for viewing the actual street. I'm still scratching my head as to why they did this as a desktop application and not a web application and the best I can come up with is that it resides in my system tray so it can tell me when the commute in Toronto goes from 20 minutes to 2 hours or a thunderstorm is rolling in off the lake and if I don't leave now I should plan on sleeping in my office. I digress. Traffic... Read More A little linear algebra for you Canadians, eh? No less than 24 hours after I post " A Few Virtual Earth / Silverlight Demo Applications " I get an email from our Canadian Virtual Earth Sales Solution Specialist, Mike Pastushak, that The Weather Network has just released their new Silverlight / Virtual Earth Desktop Traffic Application - Traffic Eye . The app uses Silverlight 2 Beta 2 and Virtual Earth tiles to serve up a robust desktop application interface for navigating and exploring traffic information. At the time of launch the only information available is for areas in Ontario (the... Read More
Aug

19

20 08

48 States in an '84 Scirocco

You think you're a power user? Check out Tim McConnell's blog TimboTrip.com where he tells the story of his trip through the 48 Continental United States. The blog is an hilarious diatribe of his incidents and life while driving - nearly 15,000 miles. It's jam packed with little stories and tons of photos of his trip like getting free shirts from Chipotle Restaurant with his sister in Colorado , to his trip to KFC while in Kentucky , and his visit to Tennessee to watch a paper mill burn to the ground. Check out the whole trip planned out in Streets and Trips under the trip schedule . He provides kudos for Streets and Trips 2008 and, man, this is an entertaining blog, so I just had to share it with everyone. In his own words... Hi - I thought you guys might be interested in my Trip - I'm visiting all 48 state Capitols in two months. My car is an 84 Volkswagen Scirocco with 250,000 miles already on it. The whole trip was planned in Streets and Trips 2008. I wanted to do this, and part of it was just a challenge to see if Streets and Trips would crash when I put in all 48 and used "optimize stops" -- It didn't crash. The distance is about 15,000 miles. There are a lot of detours... Read More You think you're a power user? Check out Tim McConnell's blog TimboTrip.com where he tells the story of his trip through the 48 Continental United States. The blog is an hilarious diatribe of his incidents and life while driving - nearly 15,000 miles. It's jam packed with little stories and tons of photos of his trip like getting free shirts from Chipotle Restaurant with his sister in Colorado , to his trip to KFC while in Kentucky , and his visit to Tennessee to watch a paper mill burn to the ground. Check out the whole trip planned out in Streets and Trips under the trip schedule . He provides... Read More
Aug

19

20 08

Sealy

Sealy just went live with their new distributor locator leveraging Microsoft Virtual Earth . Your basic, easy to use, easy to find our mattress locator. Enter a postal code on the home page to get there or go to the Sealy Distributor Locator page and drill down with additional options such as searching on postal code and brand type - Posturepedic, SpringFree, TrueForm and PurEmbrace; or, you can search by state; or, search by retailer name to filter results for a particular retailer. What's unique about this locator is not necessarily the search options, but the data presented in the result list. In addition to plotting the locations on a map, Sealy populates a tabular list below the map with all kinds of goodies. In addition to the contact information you would expect such as address and phone number, you get things like a logo to call out stores that have a "Sealy Gallery;" notification that there are 'X' number of additional locations nearby for a particular distributor brand (such as an additional Sears' locations) with the ability to view all of those respective locations on the map; and, if there's a known web site you get a link directly to that web site (such as JCPenney... Read More Sealy just went live with their new distributor locator leveraging Microsoft Virtual Earth . Your basic, easy to use, easy to find our mattress locator. Enter a postal code on the home page to get there or go to the Sealy Distributor Locator page and drill down with additional options such as searching on postal code and brand type - Posturepedic, SpringFree, TrueForm and PurEmbrace; or, you can search by state; or, search by retailer name to filter results for a particular retailer. What's unique about this locator is not necessarily the search options, but the data presented in the result list... Read More
Aug

19

20 08

A Few Virtual Earth / Silverlight Demo...

A few months back I posted about Lots of Virtual Earth and Silverlight Development Outside of Microsoft and things haven't quite slowed down, now have they? I found a couple interesting applications with Silverlight and Microsoft Virtual Earth that I figured I'd share with the rest of you in case you hadn't seen them. IDV Solutions IDV's Fusion Server is always top of the list for demonstrating the power of business intelligence applications and Virtual Earth. Their Silverlight / Virtual Earth application showcases the ability to add vector points, draw lines and create polygons with a Silverlight interface using the Virtual Earth map tiles. Once you've completed the drawing, you can export the data to KML or a SQL Server 2008 Script. You can pull in Virtual Earth road, aerial or hybrid tiles the navigation is super slick. Plus, you can rotate the map 360 degrees (as shown). ComponentOne This is a pretty simple " Factories Map " that actually highlights factories, offices and stores around the globe for an apparent fictitious company. The points on the map represent different assets of a company, but what I love about this is the real-time production meters for the factories... Read More A few months back I posted about Lots of Virtual Earth and Silverlight Development Outside of Microsoft and things haven't quite slowed down, now have they? I found a couple interesting applications with Silverlight and Microsoft Virtual Earth that I figured I'd share with the rest of you in case you hadn't seen them. IDV Solutions IDV's Fusion Server is always top of the list for demonstrating the power of business intelligence applications and Virtual Earth. Their Silverlight / Virtual Earth application showcases the ability to add vector points, draw lines and create polygons with a Silverlight... Read More
Aug

17

20 08

Precious Cargo, by Clyde Ford

Ok, here's a new one. Clyde Ford is promoting his new novel, Precious Cargo by using Microsoft Virtual Earth in an online preview of certain pages within book. The map is used mostly to show places in the "Location Index" using our Bird's Eye photography (where available) and a high resolution ortho photos (split screen). Now, once you go to the location index and click on a location you may be surprised to find out that you've just been hijacked into Google Earth. Ugh. Not to worry - just click the "Virtual Earth" link above the map and you'll be mystically transported back to Virtual Earth. Easter egg (maybe) - once you get to the site's homepage, don't do anything. Well, close the little popup that gives you tips. After a minute or so, Morgan Freeman's soothing, yet haunting voice reads the description of the book. Sounds creepy....love it. I found that out because I multitask. "Little did you know, when you read my blog today it would be the last time your life was as it has been. You've lived your life in comfort known only to you, but no more. For today, is that last day of your former life and the first day of the new. The ferocity of not knowing if I... Read More Ok, here's a new one. Clyde Ford is promoting his new novel, Precious Cargo by using Microsoft Virtual Earth in an online preview of certain pages within book. The map is used mostly to show places in the "Location Index" using our Bird's Eye photography (where available) and a high resolution ortho photos (split screen). Now, once you go to the location index and click on a location you may be surprised to find out that you've just been hijacked into Google Earth. Ugh. Not to worry - just click the "Virtual Earth" link above the map and you'll be mystically transported back... Read More
Aug

15

20 08

Virtual Earth U.K. Partner Event

For those of you in the states who went to the Microsoft MIX show this year, you got a first hand look at what's coming down the pike at Microsoft. MIX is THE HOTTEST show for online service (well, IMHO, of course). I presented a Virtual Earth session which included the tech preview of the Virtual Earth Silverlight map control. Well, that show was in Las Vegas, NV, USA and not everyone from around the world goes to the show in Vegas so we have a show called REMIX which is essentially the same (or very similar) content but in localized formats and done in different locations around the world. It's kind of like a rock tour! Anyway, this year at Microsoft REMIX UK you'll see a glaring void in the agenda where Virtual Earth should be - this is done intentionally. We're having a Virtual Earth UK partner event during the REMIX UK show, dubbed Virtual Earth UK New Partner Day . Sounds like a British holiday. It's a whole day dedicated to Virtual Earth! So, you can go to REMIX on Sept. 18, then go the Virtual Earth Event ALL DAY LONG on the 19th. You can OD on VE. Johannes Kebeck will be running the show and Dr. Neil will be flying up from the land of Oz to give you one heck of a show and a... Read More For those of you in the states who went to the Microsoft MIX show this year, you got a first hand look at what's coming down the pike at Microsoft. MIX is THE HOTTEST show for online service (well, IMHO, of course). I presented a Virtual Earth session which included the tech preview of the Virtual Earth Silverlight map control. Well, that show was in Las Vegas, NV, USA and not everyone from around the world goes to the show in Vegas so we have a show called REMIX which is essentially the same (or very similar) content but in localized formats and done in different locations around the world. It... Read More
Aug

14

20 08

Microsoft Virtual Earth Featured on CCTV...

What's the Hollywood of China? Anyone? Well, CCTV is taking full advantage of their use of Microsoft Virtual Earth across their broadcast network. Here's some video footage of a CCTV news broadcast showing Virtual Earth aerial photos and road maps during a news broadcast. They zoom down on our imagery of the Bird's Nest where much of the 2008 Summer Olympics are being held. If you recall, I posted about Euro 2008 on CCTV back in June where they built a web app with a television-looking web console for watching the soccer (football) matches online and touring the areas using Virtual Earth. I expect more exciting uses from this network in days to come. CP Read More What's the Hollywood of China? Anyone? Well, CCTV is taking full advantage of their use of Microsoft Virtual Earth across their broadcast network. Here's some video footage of a CCTV news broadcast showing Virtual Earth aerial photos and road maps during a news broadcast. They zoom down on our imagery of the Bird's Nest where much of the 2008 Summer Olympics are being held. If you recall, I posted about Euro 2008 on CCTV back in June where they built a web app with a television-looking web console for watching the soccer (football) matches online and touring the areas using Virtual Earth. I expect... Read More

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