Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years • Hacker News Board

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#61

Post by keithwhor » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC

What's really striking to me about timelapse videos of the Earth is how, at a grand enough scale, the growth of human settlements on Earth really looks no different than the growth of bacterial and fungal colonies on Petri dishes.

We think of ourself as special, as having conquered environments, technology and more - and when zoomed out you could explain everything we've built and accomplished as the achievements of a sufficiently robust slime mold simply using available resources to continue growing.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#62

Post by varispeed » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC

GcVmvNhBsU wrote: post #55

varispeed wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is one of those do as I say, not as I do type of toxic people (e.g. tells everyone to cut emissions while himself enjoying private jet flights). I don't feel that he is genuine, but for entertainment value could be worth a try.

He also does a lot to offset his private jets. > I have a higher-than-average carbon footprint, so I’m taking extra steps to do my part. In the book I briefly mention how I’m offsetting my own emissions. I spend about $5 million every year to offset my family’s carbon footprint. As of now, the standard calculation for carbon footprints is based on an estimate of $400 per ton of emissions. But since the way we calcula…

> I spend about $5 million every year to offset my family’s carbon footprint.

It's not like this money magically got created. In order for him to have $5 million, someone had to pay it, maybe by creating even more pollution. At least he is aware that he is doing bad thing, but the attitude "I am rich, so I can" is narcissistic and wrong.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#63

Post by lm28469 » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC

alex_anglin wrote: post #26

nullifidian wrote: post #4

>unfold and witness nearly four decades of planetary change. four decades of meaningless uncontrolled overpopulation, destruction of pristine nature and its ecosystems, a march of techno-globalism across the planet. Every time I see these timelapses it depresses me quite a bit.

Have a look at mortality and poverty rates globally. There is good news, as well as bad.

One could argue a cancer spreading faster is bad news

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#64

Post by npteljes » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:03 PM UTC

pow_pp_-1_v wrote: post #18

That's pretty cool! Like it or not Google does all this with the ad money they bring in. Imagine if all Google service were subscription based. Will they even have 25% of the capabilities they have now?

I appreciate the cool stuff, but I could also accept a reality where there's much less tracking going on, and Google Earth and smartphones are less impressive.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#65

Post by PEJOE » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:03 PM UTC

aimor wrote: post #23

Is this different than the historical imagery feature that was introduced in 2009? I played around with it a bit. Timelapse seems to only exist at large scales. I can't seem to resolve anything more detailed than a highway. Previously Google had higher resolution historical data. I used this to see how my house, neighborhood, and city changed over decades. There was black and white photography at the far end of the d…

AFAIK the imagery you want has been relegated to the desktop app (now called google earth pro), and is still available.

There is a little clock icon above the imagery area with a counter clockwise green arrow you must click to access historical imagery.

Luckily they do release a version of the desktop app that works on linux.

[Download page] https://www.google.com/earth/versions/#download-pro

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#66

Post by xnx » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

dweekly wrote: post #60

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #40

I kinda wish that there was a timelapse for Google search. Search seems to be heavily biased towards stuff popular right now. It seems older things disappear fairly quickly. I've been in a position where I wanted to search for a website that was popular in 2012 without having the exact name, and having to find an old forum post that linked to it to find it.

I hear you - it would probably need to be cross integrated with web.archive.org in order to actually vend most results given how rapidly we are seeing bit rot.

I think I read somewhere that behind-the-scenes the Google crawler is in-effect a super-archive.org, keeping a copy of every page it has crawled. This sounds outrageous, but I believe it's feasible with compression.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#67

Post by ourcat » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

gpspake wrote: post #52

Impossible wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has bailed on VR apps (for the most part, Owlchemy is still there), so I imagine not. It'd be cool if Google Earth VR was opensource like Tiltbrush. Like Tiltbrush it was one of the foundational early VR apps that people demoed, it's fun to imagine a world where Google continued to put money into VR, but I'm actually not sure how that fits into their business outside of just another platform for Android.

It's a shame. Google Earth on VR is probably the most amazing and practical use for VR for normal people at the moment. I like to street-view in to other countries and stand in the middle of crowded places with people around me imagining that it's a thousand years from now and humanity is gone and it's the documentation of life on earth. I've had good times passing the headset around in a room full of people to share…

Google Earth VR is fantastic. Especially during the lockdowns. It felt like going out! ;)

I'm wondering if the Timelapse will get added to it.

(Used on a Quest 1 and 2 over Virtual Desktop to a PC)

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#68

Post by detritus » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

keithwhor wrote: post #61

What's really striking to me about timelapse videos of the Earth is how, at a grand enough scale, the growth of human settlements on Earth really looks no different than the growth of bacterial and fungal colonies on Petri dishes. We think of ourself as special, as having conquered environments, technology and more - and when zoomed out you could explain everything we've built and accomplished as the achievements of…

The only difference being that we can understand the impact we're having. And yet...

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#69

Post by pow_pp_-1_v » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

andrew_v4 wrote: post #38

pow_pp_-1_v wrote: post #18

That's pretty cool! Like it or not Google does all this with the ad money they bring in. Imagine if all Google service were subscription based. Will they even have 25% of the capabilities they have now?

I agree with you, its something only possible because they are throwing off cash. But is it worth them having turned much of the internet into a cesspit? I'm conflicted. On one hand you could argue it's like some dictatorship putting on lavish parades while conditions in their regime are generally terrible (I'm not trying to compare the magnitude of the problem, just the idea that having something fancy to show doesn…

FWIW, I was not trying to pass a value judgement on whether Google, on net, is good or bad. It was just a thought I had when I saw the time lapse thing.

But I don't think Google turned internet into a cesspit. Yes, Youtube's recommendation algorithms are pretty bad. But there other actors who deserver a bigger share of the blame.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#70

Post by 101008 » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

neither_color wrote: post #2

With Timelapse in Google Earth, 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years have been compiled into an interactive 4D experience. Now anyone can watch time unfold and witness nearly four decades of planetary change. This is amazing, will this be included in the VR versions of google earth? For those who haven't tried it yet Google Earth is the first thing I show friends who've never tried VR before by giving t…

I have a Play Station VR headset and it's awesome but I always felt sad that I coudln't experience this. How is the experience? I know a lot of friends felt sick when we play a space videogame or some game where the environment isn't clear and they can't see where they are standing, I guess having a view from outer space can trigger same feelings.