New use for Google Maps

[chris in va]

I like to read the 'Civilian Gun Self Defense Blog' on a daily basis. I noticed the accounts usually give a street address, so I typed in a few.

Google Maps has a street view that shows the whole neighborhood and actual house as well. It's a real eye opener, puts things into perspective.

Just for the heck of it I typed in my Dad's address, and you can see him outside working on his boat.

 

[BlueTrain]

I love Google Maps. My house is there clear as day and you can even see the streaks on the roofing. No cars in the driveway, so I guess they waited until we left for work.

To keep it gun related, I especially enjoy looking at seacoast fortifications, most of which show up very well from an aerial perspective. Most large coastal cities in the United States had several. Some European cities have very fine ones and it is a little surprising that Moscow is so easy to view.

San Francisco has several coastal batteries and one still has a (mostly) working disappearing gun, which is interesting to see if you are ever in San Francisco (be sure to wear some flowers in your hair). The battery is south of the Golden Gate Bridge, just south of the nude beach. A disappearing gun literally folded down on it's carriage behind the parapet when it was fired. I didn't get to see this one in use and it was covered in canvas, so I missed something.

 

[hogdogs]

I am curious how many folks it is taking to get these images? Must be a ton of shutter bugs runnin' around and how much are they being paid for this?
I like the idea of using it to review shooting locations to find defensive weakness and ambush locations etc...
Brent

 

[Technosavant]

I am curious how many folks it is taking to get these images? Must be a ton of shutter bugs runnin' around and how much are they being paid for this?

For the overhead imagery they just use commercially available satellite shots. For the "street view" photos they have special vehicles that roam the world, just taking pics as they go. I believe they also use photos that normal folks have uploaded for the purpose when it comes to certain points of interest.

 

[Dingoboyx]

Google maps is good

I have seen a few shots with aeroplanes in the frame.... I saw one farmhouse I thought had a jumbo jet parked in a paddock but the plane was probably at 10,000 feet..... cool pic tho

Have some shots of my range too

 

[SKULLANDCROSSBONES65]

G'day. I have looked at a few ranges in the USA. It is handy when you want to get an idea of the area and vegetation that you hunt in.

 

[Tom2]

Bluetrain, you say the defense is just near the nude beach? OK now I gotta nother idea for the application..

 

[BlueTrain]

Yeah, no kidding. We were in San Francisco last August and visited that beach pretty much on the spur of the moment. It is part of the Presidio of San Francisco, which I believe is no longer an active installation. There's plenty of parking but the (unofficial) nude part is up towards the bridge. But San Francisco can be cold in August.

One thing about the aerial views on Google maps is that everything really flattens out. You don't have the perspective of heights. Likewise, not everything is available to the same magnification but I'm still surprised at what's there.

A lot of these coastal installations, by the way, continued in use or were re-activated in WWII, some being closed only in the 1950s. The disappearing guns, interesting though they were, became obsolete as a design because of the relatively limited range they supposedly had, since they could not be elevated very much. Believe it or not, new coastal fortifications were built in WWII but the ones in the Phillipines were about the only ones that saw action.

 

[hoytinak]

While preparing to do raids and what not in various parts of the world, we would use Google maps because most of the time they were better than what our intel could get us.

 

[Bud Helms]

"To keep it gun related ..." is a sure sign it ain't. It just barely still is though.

 

[jmr40]

To help keep it gun related, try looking up Pearl Harbor. You can see the outline of the Arizona on the bottom. I cannot make out her 16" guns. I wonder if they have been removed.

I have also used it to get an aerial view of areas where I hunt. It can be pretty informative.

 

[grymster2007]

Here's a google maps shot of the gun emplacements just across the water from the Presidio and a good article on Battery Kirby.

I go there quite often. Beautiful place and pretty cool to be standing on top of the emplacements, thinking of those guns while looking at the GG Bridge and SF skyline.

 

[Hellbilly5000]

I am not a fan of Google maps for the simple fact that I have a right to privacy and Google robs me of that right. Also take into consideration that if you can look up something via street view or Google maps so can the bad guy. Makes it real hard to protect your home if the BG can see your home and a reasonable lay of the house and the property.

 

[grymster2007]

I am not a fan of Google maps for the simple fact that I have a right to privacy and Google robs me of that right.

I don't get how your right to privacy is violated by an observer on public property.

 

[Hellbilly5000]

An over view of your property when someone is looking down on it and it is made open to the vast public of the world is a violation of a certain right of privacy also when they do there street view google may see you inside your home they may see your home lay out property lines ect.

 

[grymster2007]

An over view of your property when someone is looking down on it and it is made open to the vast public of the world is a violation of a certain right of privacy also when they do there street view google may see you inside your home they may see your home lay out property lines ect.

So plant some trees and put up some drapes.

 

[chemgirlie]

I always get a kick out of seeing the creative twists that people put on security cameras.

These guys put on silent versions of plays for security cameras:
http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html

I think the scariest thing about security cameras happened to me last year. I had my bike locked up on the fence outside of my apartment building (which was on top of a shop at a pretty busy intersection). Somebody cut the lock on my bike and stole it.

I filed a stolen property report and all of that. As I was walking home I glanced up at the street lamp pole where one of the many street cameras was located. I got the idea to see if the police department could review the tapes.

After making several calls and office visits and inquiring about the possibility of having somebody look at the tapes (I had a pretty good idea of when it was stolen) the lady at the desk of the office I ended up at simply handed the tapes over to me and showed me a TV/VCR where I could watch them (but I couldn't leave the building with them), no questions asked.

I could see when I left my apartment, which direction I go in, who I was with, what times I came back/left, when I stopped into my favorite coffee shop, what pocket I kept my keys in, what side I usually carry my purse on, etc.

The fact that lady simply handed them over to me was really freaky.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Really I have to agree with Hellbilly5000.

There are folks out there who've moved to the butt end of nowhere, purchased private property, installed huge privacy fences and so forth. I think those folks are entitled to a "reasonable expectation of privacy".

Yet any bozo with a computer can hit "Google earth" and have an overhead shot of that property?

No, something is wrong with that.

On the other hand I do like the idea of mapping out this sort of thing. For example, the map shown below was a crime report of attacks involving a weapon for my old neighborhood....it (and a few more like it over a couple of weeks) was what convinced me to finish getting my CCW renewed a few years back.

 

[BlueTrain]

Well, this is a good place to talk about privacy. To begin with, where does the right to privacy come from? Is there one, really? The founding fathers (and mothers) may or may not have had the same notions of privacy that we do and the further back you go, the less there was. But has always mattered more to some people than to others. It is an arguable point.

Privacy is not the same as anononimity, which is probably not a real word. Most people post here using code names or assumed names and are otherwise anonomous, which is probably a good thing. A secret ballot is probably a good thing. Not knowing any of your neighbors is probably not a good thing. If none of your neighbors know you, that's probably not a good thing either.

We live in curious times and I guess we always have. But we can only be so private and still be a part of the community. This forum is a sort of community but since we're all anonomous, as far as I can tell, what sort of community does that make us? But don't worry. The resolution of places that are the butt end of nowhere is pretty low. You're safe. Sleep well.

By the way, another thing about Google Earth is that the photos that are displayed are as of a point in time and might be a couple of years old.

 

[Chuckusaret]

google earth is also good, you can see anywhere on this earth