Hi, I have my own domain with a Blog and a listing of all the video clips I like from around all the various video sharing sites.

To access my blog, simply head over to http://www.friedgreenkidneybean.com/blog. On there I have all sorts of news about my websites, things that I come across on a regular basis across the net and a few moans and grumbles a long the way.

I also have, what I termed, The Black Hole in recognition of Colin Murry’s great idea on BBC Radio 1. I’m going to try and archive as many of their past entries in my very own Black Hole site, as well as adding in my own content and yours! Yes, that’s right, I would like to hear from you if you have any funny and interesting links you would like to share and see on the website.

Moving on, I also have a Help and resources area on my website which will eventually have guides, hints and tips on keeping your computer working nicely and keeping it away from the dark side, well the blue screen of death anyway. This is very much a work in progress and will take me a bit of time and I’ll always be adding to it. If you would like to help me with that, please feel free to get in touch using my blog’s contact form or by sending me an email with any help you may be able to give.

help@friedgreenkidneybean.com

I came across this on Live Leak.com and so I thought I’d copy it in here as I thought it was quite interesting how it was actually done…
Type “77 Massachusetts Avenue 02139″ into Google Earth, and you’ll see MIT’s Great Dome in all its glory. Click a button to zoom out, and soon you’ll see the state capitol, the celebrated Zakim Bridge, and maybe some other college up the river. (Watch a video demonstration.) These images, which are shared by Google Maps, are actually a combination of aerial photos and satellite ­imagery–and a lot of post­processing. Technology Review interviewed engineers at Google and at ­DigitalGlobe, the company that supplies Google’s satellite photos, and did a little bit of reverse-engineering to figure out how it works.

1. High-Resolution Imagery
As it passes overhead at an altitude of 450 kilometers, DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite photographs the planet’s surface. The satellite can take “snapshots” roughly 16.5 kilometers square or record “strips,” which measure 16.5 by 330 kilometers. The average resolution is roughly 60 square centimeters per pixel if the satellite is looking straight down, or less if it is looking at an angle. But because the satellite makes only 15 orbits per day, and because there is huge competition for its camera, most regions of the planet have not been photographed at high resolution. (Just try looking at Hazelton, WV, in Google Earth.) Lower-resolution data is provided by other satellites, like the Landsat-7, which has imaged the entire planet at a resolution of 15 meters. Information about an image’s absolute position is captured with the help of GPS.

2. Ground Station and Postprocessing
The satellite stores the image, then sends it down to DigitalGlobe’s ground station in either Norway or Alaska when it passes overhead. The data then travels to a data center in Colorado, where differences in photographic angle are corrected, and the images are mapped onto a 3-D digital elevation model. This process, called orthorectification, prevents features on the tops of hills and mountains from being smeared out or placed in the wrong locations. Finally, the image is resampled so that its pixels will be aligned with the latitude-­longitude grid. (The digital elevation model is what lets Google Earth “tilt” the ground for realistic views of the Grand Canyon [video] and Mount Everest [video].)

3. Aerial Photography
Many areas of high interest, like Boston and San Francisco, are also photographed by aircraft; clearly visible in the resulting photos are car sunroofs, lampposts, and even people. As it does during satellite photography, GPS provides absolute-position information; aerial photographs may be further aligned using landmarks. Some towns, such as Bergen, Norway, have taken their own photographs and given them to Google so that vacationers and real-estate investors can get a better view.

4. Digital Pyramids
Google stores data from DigitalGlobe and other sources in a massive geographical database arranged by latitude and longitude. Multiple images of each part of the world are then generated, at varying resolutions, and these images are arranged into “pyramids” of data. Google’s servers can thus send an image of a particular location, at a particular magnification, to a Google Maps or Google Earth user, with very little delay.

5. www.google.com/maps
Running inside a Web browser, the Google Maps client application contains more than 200 kilobytes of compact and obfuscated JavaScript that is downloaded when the browser first displays the map. The application determines which piece of which pyramid should be displayed next and requests it using a standard HTTP “get” command–the same command that’s used to download Web pages and images from any Web server. The images are stored in the browser’s cache and displayed when the user scrolls to the requested area, zooms in, or zooms out. The browser automatically throws away images from the cache when they are no longer needed.

Annotation
Respected information providers like National Geographic and Google community members like your Aunt Betty can supply additional “layers” of data that are tied to particular geographical locations. That information is also stored on servers at Google and elsewhere on the Internet. The list of all available layers appears at the lower left of the Google Earth application window; checking a box makes the application ask the servers for all the layer data for the geographical area that’s on the screen and superimpose the data on the landscape.

Mashup
An annotated Google Maps satellite view can be embedded in any Web page. A developer just has to get a certain small piece of ­JavaScript and enter the coördinates of the location to be displayed, along with any annotations. When a browser visits the page, it downloads this information. The ­JavaScript directs the browser to contact Google’s server, send the coördinates, and download sections of the map.

Click the thumbnail
for a larger view

Originally uploaded to liveleak.com by HAPPYSNAPPER

Has to be said, this is pretty amazing flying by the pilot of the A320 passenger plane to have handled it so well and prevent a crash. I’m sure the 131 passengers on board would have all been very relieved to have landed safely after that intial botched landing. They must have been some very strong crosswinds to have blown the plane as much as they did.

It’s weird, I had all these big ideas on what I wanted to do with them, but then the more I think about it, the less enthusiasm I have for doing all I planned.

The www.student-ac.com came out of a sheer headache trying to find accommodation at uni and thinking that the only good site I found was the Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan universities own joint venture, www.manchesterstudenthomes.com. Now that is all well and good if you’re off to uni in Manchester, but else where, well I found a few university websites were lacking and the only other websites advertising student accommodation were pretty limited in content and not very effective. I decided I would just register the name and have a play around when I got to uni and found somebody to work on it with. But alas, nobody I know on my course so far seems interested in doing the internet computing side of things.

I also made up www.lettings -ac.com as an after thought at the time since the host I went with was offering me 5 free domains. Not really sure it is even worth spending the £10 a year each on keeping them alive since I really can’t see me ever using them. But then I think £10 isn’t a great deal of money and if I’m paying for yearly webhosting then it mabe worth hanging on to them just in case but yeah well…

So anyway, I really do need to get this new webhosting sorted, but my problem is I’m being offered 3 free domains with the new host which doesn’t include the three domains I am considering taking over with me which is a bit rubbish. I just don’t want to get to the stage where I have three new domains and then the three old domains too. Really isn’t something I’m relishing, having to pay £60 for 6 domain names a year just in case I ever do find a use for them :p

My ideas for website domains:

1. New domain for homes for both sale and rent as well as a few other bits and bobs, but then there are established websites out there already doing what I want to do…
2. New domain for bands, singers, producers and DJs to have their own artist pages, but myspace is just too popular!?
3. New domain for… Who knows, but then they are free so I could register them and then give them up I guess!?

My current website domains:

1. www.friedgreenkidneybean.com – just lots of randomness, help, hints & tips and links (like this blog will be)
2. www.student-ac.com – a website advertising student homes and rooms for rent
3. www.lettings-ac.com – a website advertising homes for rent, although I wonder if it’s worth bothering with…

Just far too much to think about and well, who knows…

How annoying, no news anywhere about this and all they say is – second quarter of 2008!?

So now I have to wait it out and get one when they come out or maybe go for the MPK49, but then I have a Edirol PCR-50 so no real point in me getting yet another keyboard controller.

Oh well, I just hope it’s as good as Akai are billing it to be since they’re making me wait so long for this (

Been thinking for a while I used to have some real fun with Reason 2 and to some extent Reason 3 a while back and I really wanted to get a copy of Reason 4. Been considering it for a few weeks now and when I finally figure (30 minutes before the shop shuts on sunday), that I want a copy. I get there, drool at the Moog synths and all the over loveliness that was in Sound Control and bugger!!

They were out of stock! How gutted was I? Well oh well, grabbed myself a demo version but they’re a bit tight!? 20 minutes of running time? What’s that all about? I’m sure it was between 30 minutes and an hour in the past but oh well…

So anyway, since there is another Sound Control nearer to where I live in Manchester, I think I might be popping into their instead tomorrow after uni to see if they have a copy in stock as I can’t be waiting until thursday… (

My first blog on here and I’m really at a loose end as to what to write here so I guess this will be pretty short and pointless…

Hopefully as time goes on, I’ll find some interesting stuff to add on here and this wont be such a dull and boring blog )