Transit Voyeurism

1. Sydney, Australia programmer Ken Tsang created this live view of the city's transit system showing all vehicles.

 Every vehicle transmits its location and Transport for NSW has opened the data to the public. It shows all buses, trains, light rail, ferries, delays and track inspections. You can filter by vehicle type. The screen below also serves as a legend of sorts. Trains are in orange, buses blue, light rail red, and ferries green.

You can also see an online version of the station signs.

Just watching all the vehicles moving around is mesmerizing

NOTE: If you are in North America and looking at this early in the day, you won't see much activity because it will be the middle of the night in Sydney. Wait until later in the day and then see how things pick up.

-via EFTM

2. Will Geary, a data science student has created this wonderful video of a day's transit in New York and suburbs. It is not real time data like the one above but does show an incredible wealth of data - and comes with musical accompaniment!


- via City Lab

Apple Maps in 3D

The much maligned Apple Maps has improved its product in many ways. I bought a new computer for the first time in many years so I'm just discovering this not very new feature-the 3D models. They are accompanied by flyover tours of selected cities such as Seattle.

Apple acquired a Swedish company called C3 Technologies, that created 3D models of buildings based on aerial flyovers and guided missile technology. They were then able to quickly create a huge database of building models worldwide. Having tried to do this in SketchUp, (which I believe Google uses for their 3D buildings,) I have an appreciation for how much work each building takes. Unfortunately Apple's maps are only available on Apple devices. Google Maps has more extensive 3D coverage (and available to everyone with a web browser) but Apple's models are clearer and cooler looking. They also draw more smoothly.

Some gimmicks have been added. For example, In London Big Ben will always show the correct time, though it would be more accurate if it was lit up when it's dark there. Also, the London Eye is animated! 

Some more examples:
Sydney

Mount Rushmore

The Bromo Seltzer Tower in Baltimore

Here is a comparison of Google's vs Apple's 3D view of the above tower. Google's model is on the left.

Most articles online about Apple Maps are full of snooty comments about how bad they are. Google still has the edge over Apple Maps in many respects and StreetView is a huge reason to continue using them. However, in recent travels I've found Apple Maps more helpful for locating restaurants, hotels and other businesses. I use both of them (as well as Here Maps and even Mapquest) and do not strongly advocate one over the other but Apple Maps is definitely worth another look.

Meanwhile over in Australia...

While we struggle through 50 degree temperatures in this not very cold January, Australia is also struggling through 50 degrees - only Celsius, in other words really, really hot.
A family friend who moved to Sydney sent this map along while complaining of 109 degree temperatures. PopSci details how the Bureau of Meteorology needed to add two new colors to the heat map. The purple blob in the middle indicates 52-54 Celsius (somewhere between 122 and 125 Fahrenheit.)

They also added a pink color for temperatures above 54, though it does not appear that they needed to use that color. The purple on this map is from one of several climate models and it was not widely expected to get that hot. The record high temperature of 50.7 was set at the Oodnadatta Airport in 1960 and there is no indication yet that record has been broken, however there is limited monitoring* in parts of central Australia. Last night a "cold" front passed through dropping temperatures back into the 30's up north and upper 20's (about 70 degrees at night) in Sydney.

*From the Sydney Morning Herald

Google's 8-bit Maps

Google released an 8-bit map "upgrade" this past weekend as an April Fool's joke. This upgrade was done to support the Nintendo Entertainment System as explained in the Google LatLong blog - the video at this link is pretty funny.

Here are some examples of our 8-bit fantasy-like world:

The lower Great Lakes with the important places like Aurora and West Virginia emphasized.

Westminster, London - zoom in to get cute building icons.

The pixellated coast of New Orleans

 

Yellowstone and vicinity

Sydney.

  

 Occasionally you will come across a game character like this guy near Scranton. If I was more into gaming I might know who this is.

Here's the googleplex area with its dinosaur and flamingoes. There's probably a joke or two here for those in the know.

If you zoom all the way to street view, the images are posterized for your fantasy viewing pleasure:

Click here to explore the 8 bit world.