This is HOT!(?)

MCL_RDG

Member
I wanted to look up an address for my wife's business. I went over to Google- added the appropriate information. When the map came up there was a new button- "Street View". Well there I cyber-was. On that street with a panning view of the location. Astounding!

I pick myself- being iconized and all- and drag my icon (a.k.a. sorry butt) over to the neaby train track I spied. I scanned all around- you can push your view along any street and case all the homes and stuff.

Anyway- here's what I have as an address you can copy and paste into a google browser- hit enter after the copy and paste and then select the "Street View" button iffin' you want to see what a railroad crossing in Texas looks like.

5900 Rufe Snow, Bedford, TX 76021, USA

Just paste it in and...

...let me know what you think.

Mark
 

Kevinkrey

Member
My freind showed mr the Street View thing the other day, I thought it was a little strange, but at the same time vey interesting.
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
That is neat. As I don't use google, it took me a bit to figure out where to go ( Google Maps ). Several times now, google has installed itself onto my system and tried taking over. As a result, I don't use it anymore. Still, the street view is pretty cool and I imagine it will only be a matter of time before the other mapping sites copy the idea as well. It would be interesting to find out how long that car was stopped on the tracks like that in order to take the 360 degree shot.
 

RailRon

Active Member
It's fun to do some 'driving' on these picture-mapped streets.

TrainNut - these pics were made from a travelling car. It drove in the rightmost lane, and not too slow. When you look towards South, you see a red car ahead of you in the middle lane. Now "follow" the car by repeatedly clicking on the South arrow (or by hitting the "up" key), you see that you are even passing him. :wave:
This proves that the camera car steadily moves ahead - therefore the pics must have been made at speed! :cool::cool::cool:

Must be quite a camera, since the picture isn't blurred at all! :thumb:

Mark, this is a quite interesting RR crossing. I never saw this arrangement of barriers and traffic islands before. (But then in Texas evrything is a bit bigger than elsewhere, right? :mrgreen:)

Ron
 

N Gauger

1:20.3 Train Addict
It's a vehicle with a ring of cameras.. they drive around and the cameras take frame by frame video... It;s just like driving anything. Albeit a bit slower.

The plan is to interlink these pics with In Vehicle Nav Systems, so when you are taking a trip, you'll "See" the street in front of you, on the GPSr's screen, with that white line telling you where to turn.

If enough people can get interested in this here... We could start a Satellite Railfan thread.. We could all post addresses of local rail stuff and share with others.
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
Isn't the Internet grand? Thing is awhile back I was checking this feature out when someone posted a still pic where it shows a couple of ladies sunbathing in a park. So it brings up the question of privacy as well as adds another dimension to the whole "voyuer" aspect of life.

It just goes to show. You never know who is watching and now...taking pictures.
 

N Gauger

1:20.3 Train Addict
Isn't the Internet grand? Thing is awhile back I was checking this feature out when someone posted a still pic where it shows a couple of ladies sunbathing in a park. So it brings up the question of privacy as well as adds another dimension to the whole "voyuer" aspect of life.

It just goes to show. You never know who is watching and now...taking pictures.

Well, it does blur out faces and license plates. at least that's what they announced what they were doing. It preserves privacy and avoids lawsuits.

Some Big Brother aspects of the pictures...

What if they caught a cheating spouses' car out in front of the "other person's" house??

seeing a drug deal???

Catching any person that was supposed to be working... somewhere else that they were not supposed to be

People committing any type of vandalism

A mother striking (disciplining) a child

Any Street gang activity

there are tons of things these cameras could see... That would or could lead to invasion of privacy lawsuits.... interesting aspect of the entire process.
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for technology. I think what Google is doing is pretty damn awesome and pushing the Internet in all kinds of different directions. However, I can see how easily something as clever and useful as the street mapping could be used for other ends...good and bad.
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
If enough people can get interested in this here... We could start a Satellite Railfan thread.. We could all post addresses of local rail stuff and share with others.
Didn't we try a version of that not too long ago? If I remember right, it flew like a lead balloon. Perhaps with this new spin, it would be more successful.
...yep, here it is... http://forum.zealot.com/t151710/ ... from back in August of 07.
 

jbaakko

Active Member
Heck, they added the blurring idea, AFTER a guy got caught leaving an adult video store, when he was supposed to be at work... Just be glad thats not you.

If you pan the camera down, you can see the car that took the pictures. In this case, it looks like a red car. I personally saw an Astro Van with "Google" on the sides. Never found a picture of me in the maps in San Diego though.
 

N Gauger

1:20.3 Train Addict
Didn't we try a version of that not too long ago? If I remember right, it flew like a lead balloon. Perhaps with this new spin, it would be more successful.
...yep, here it is... http://forum.zealot.com/t151710/ ... from back in August of 07.

Yeah - I remember that - - but that was from space looking down.. I thought a "Street View" was different enough to try again :D :D

Yeah I know..... hamrhamrhamr
 

eightyeightfan1

Now I'm AMP'd
Seeing a "drug deal"and "Gang activity" would be the good things.
Maybe if these "persons of interest", knew they were being watched, things would be safer...
As far as Better-Half catching my car at the LHS instead of work......Ooops.
 

Art Decko

Member
Streetview is great for homesick Americans living abroad. :) I can "stroll" around my old stomping grounds.

Google Earth is great fun, too, expecially if you download the full application which lets you tilt the plane of the earth - it looks much more realistic than the default "straight down" view.

As for the "creepiness" factor, I'm afraid that will get worse. Security/CCTV cameras are a huge global business now, in some countries (e.g. China, UK) they are blossoming everywhere. When those get plugged into an app like Streetview (I think this will surely occur) ... it will be *live*.
 
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