One of my favorite hobbies is roaming the globe via Google Earth.
What I really like about it is that the colors are the most "true colors". I haven't yet come across any software with its capability, and ease-of-use for the layman PC user.
Check out this pic of a guesthouse (saved using Google Earth). For some of you guys, it's just an ordinary pic. Not much details, you'd say.
But then, a picture tells a thousand words to many.
It's a place I had visited 25 years back ! (june 1982, to be precise ). A guesthouse in Bhubaneswar, capital of Orissa, a state in India.
250 degrees from the center, about 1inch to bottom is the guesthouse. Just above the title Image 2006 DigitalGlobe. It used to be called simply the Vanivihar guest house. I tilted Google Earth to confirm it is the same.
Hmm....the saplings in the garden in front of the guesthouse have grown...25 years back there were only flowering plants,shrubs and tree saplings.
The barren field to the right hand side of the guesthouse is a marker...it is exactly the same.
Check out the soil color....overall, especially 120 degrees to the guesthouse.
Red laterite soil.....gives me a feeling of deja vu. This is a typical soil color in that part of Orissa.
The black line parallel to the bottom edge is the National Highway running from Calcutta to Chennai.
Another thinner strip parallel and above the main highway looks the same...it's not meant for heavy vehicles, but for light mopeds, rickshaws.
Lower right hand quadrant 1 inch above "Eye alt" is the gate - the gate to Utkal University. It runs perpendicular to the National Highway, going towards the University. It ends in a semi-circle I remember well.
Just to the left of the guesthouse another perpendicular to the national highway black asphalt road. Tree-lined as before.
Goes to the upper left hand quadrant full of single storied houses as before..
Just below the national highway there seems to be new construction...used to be rectangular strip shallow lakes. They seem to be gone. That's the only bad part.
And of course, as I slowly keep Google Earth in a "moving mode" (so easy, just grab and give it a light shove....and it rolls)...one can check out the moving scenery, as if one's viewing the whole countryside from a chopper.
One should wait till the Streaming is 100% for full clarity. Wonderful things like elevation, lat / long , eye altitude , street description, etcetera are there.
But, this is one software which gives me hours of delight.
A VIRTUAL globe trotter.
