wwp@yahoogroups.com:
A chance for GPS updating/improvements
Markus Altendorff 2006-Feb-19 11:35:00
Hello List,
as hinted by Landis, those that want to improve their GPS
data for earlier WWP events can now do so. We had a few
requests for this after the Google Earth cross-linking
feature was added for the "best of" December '05 round.
You may from now until March 1st log in to our site
preparation server with your name/password as before, and
update the GPS data for your panorama(s). There are two ways
to edit the values:
- enter latitude/longitude by hand
- copy-and-paste a placemark from Google Earth to a special
input field which extracts the values from the placemark's
text. There's a short how-to manual available, just open the
"Placemark interpreter" pop-up frame and click the "How do
i..." text beneath the headline.
There is also a new value switch called "Precision", so if
you'd rather not want your GPS values to be displayed, you
can now set them to a "omit from map" mode. This will hide
the panorama marker dot from the map pages and the Google
Earth placemark file. The other values are high = exact,
medium = somewhat exact or low = "won't tell for privacy
reason, but somewhere around that city" ;) precision.
Thomas has volunteered to check the new coordinates, since
some members of the Google Earth community are rather
obsessed with precision and tend to gripe if the data's not
precise enough ;)
To give him the time necessary to approve 1759 placemarks
(or at least at those that changed), the access timeframe is
from now until March 1st, after which he'll look through the
new placemarks, and we should be ready by March 15th to
start a new round.
Some technical notes:
- access control to the pages now allows for a bit of
fine-tuning - you'll notice that only the GPS fields are
"green". We've all at one time or the other felt the need to
rework an older entry, but for archival honesty feel that
the WWP shouldn't do this. Thomas will be busy enough with
the GPS markers, and i guess Don and Landis also don't feel
the urge to go through all texts yet again...
- We do have the "large" Google Earth placemarks file with
all the GPS markers. Note that this file will NOT update in
real time - it's too large to be built on the fly after each
change. The link "Show in Google Earth" WILL immediately
update on the preparation server.
- The web interface has been tested on Mac and Windows, and
worked in all browsers i've had at hand, but there may be
some firewall/browser/computer combination that can not
access the page. If possible, try again from another
computer. If it doesn't work at all, please drop me a mail,
and i'll see if i can fix it.
-Markus