I just found a new toy! Would you like to play a game?
I was looking for some brief entertainment, while slogging through the ritual of year end shredding (everything from 2007 that's worthy). I looked on Deals, but then was reminded of Local dot woot, which I hadn't poked in a while.
Warning, this game won't work if you have a specific set.
http://local.woot.com/cities/search
You know that little Google person? The one that sits on the map, waiting for you to drag it to a location? You can play map roulette with this! Just grab with the mouse, shut your eyes, and let it go. Whammo, you get to visit random places in the US and Canada. I've seen Calgary in Canada, and am now visiting Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.
by
shrdlu
asked 5 months ago
Hah! It also stretches into Mexico. I am now looking at "Costero, San Felipe, Baja California" (and it's still sunny outside).
[Edit] Actually, this is some pretty nice work, since it must be patterned after what Google Maps does, and yet be original. I have Flash disabled on this browser, which keeps that sort of thing from working when it's directly from Google (whose cookies I block in any case).
@shawnmiller, is this part of what you did? applause for all your team. Best thing I've seen in a while. :-D
I seem to keep ending up in Columbus Circle in NYC.
@durkzilla: You're being messed up by your cookies. Did you already "choose" NYC as your city?
@shrdlu: Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War?
Ok, took me a minute to figure this out. I first ended up at Ripley's Believe It or Not in Myrtle Beach, SC.
Next was Hidalgo, Zacatecas Mexico: let's just say I was a little more careful walking the Google streets there (glad it was during the day). Didn't want to become the next American as a cartel statistic.
@shrdlu: No location was selected on the iPad that I'm playing on tonight. It might have something to do with the iPad browser, though, as I managed to crash Safari navigating my little dude around the world. I don't think the touchscreen interface is nearly as precise as a mouse - I know Safari often tries to guess at what I'm trying to click and ends up making selections for me.
I did get to see parts of Nova Scotia, Provincetown, MA, and Kansas City, though.
I played and landed right outside Coors Field in Denver! and the sun was shining (bonus points)!
Hard Rock @ Universal, Florida
Would you believe that I flung the little man and wound up at Pike Place Market in Seattle right by the fish throwers and my favorite Chinese bakery.
What a hoot! Thanks. As you can probably tell, I don't get out much.
Ditto!
From Minneapolis to the Canary Islands! What fun! Thanks for the tip. Zoomed out so maybe I'll hit Europe this time!
@belyndag: Whoa! Never EVER thought about zooming out. Even more fun, thanks!
um, isn't the sun always going to be shining - it is google maps and I don't think the guys drove around getting street views at night.
Just saying...I could be way off though.
My first try I ended up in Alexandersgatan, Uusimaa.
I have no idea where that is, but there is a bus driving by.
Edit: Apparently it's in Finland.
::waiting patiently for someone to post about the fact that the location it pulls up is not as random as implied::
(dragging it to a specific state will always pull up the same landmark within each respective state/region as far as i can tell)
@pinchecat: I finally figured that out - my Columbus Circle repeats were all because I was dragging the dude into the northeast.
I noticed on the PC that you can see a dotted green circle that is being selected for you as the nearest point of interest, hence the repeats.
@durkzilla: here's a link inspired by @shrdlu 's original quest for striking fear in the soul of boredom using Google tech:
...truly makes you appreciate the mileage covered by the StreetView project. quite remarkable!
@tiamat114: i got that place too, first time! "Alexandersgatan, Uusimaa"
i had to look it up, it's a part of Helsinki, Finland
interesting... is that you with the grocery bags? *waves*
hi!
@pinchecat: That is a great website, I just spent twenty minutes going through their Gallery (link at the top) and it has some amazing shots taken by the street view cars. It just struck me that the creation of this digital catalog of what all these areas look like will be an incredible resource for future historians and archaeologists, assuming the data is available. Maybe it takes a little of the romance out of those fields, but it is still crazy to imagine future generations being able to see what cities and cultures looked like at this level of detail.
I hit a jackpot on my third try...
Zoom in to South Dakota, near the Badlands National Park, then between Philip and Fort Pierre. Zoom in a little further and you'll see Midland pop up -- that's the zoom level you want, when Midland first shows on the map. Pull up Street View on I-90, on the blue bubble just south of Midland, and look northwest.
There you will see, I kid you not, a dinosaur... AND, if you look up, there's a UFO (-like lens flare)!
Yes, a dinosaur and UFO in the same camera location.
Then I spent an hour trying to find it on Google Maps.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=&ll=43.886266,-101.13075&spn=0.001529,0.004128&sll=44.087585,-101.12915&sspn=6.24135,16.907959&vpsrc=6&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=43.886266,-101.13075&panoid=913dcNOtjBXKhHevV3fIkA&cbp=12,332.4,,0,-41.4
It was worth it, though, because I was totally vindicated on the dinosaur thing in the "Photos":
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/34197977
More info:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/7615
@pinchecat: i also clicked a bunch of the links on http://twitter.com/streetviewfunny and found some gems
like this awesome park that seems to go on forever
http://www.streetviewfunny.com/streetviewfunny/story.php?title=which-one-is-the-bride
^ click the subject line
and this one in Tibet that made me wonder what the 2 people were doing. looks like they dropped their bags, ran a few feet away, and turned 180 degrees away from the camera
@w00tgurl: I think those "2 people" in Tibet is actually just one person. If you move up and down the road a little bit, you can see there's only one person. It must be something about the way Google stitched the pictures together.
The people did not talk to me on my virtual vacation, but they are very good listeners.
Fv781, Nordland
First I ended up on a bridge in Chicago, then on my second try I found myself in Dallas right where JFK was shot. I thought, "What are the odds of that?!" and then I read @pinchecat's comment about landmarks and it makes a lot more sense.
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