I wonder how many BEE-Lers have discovered Google Earth for observing the
layout of their homes, and beeyards, plan trips and vacations, and to just
poke around?

Google Earth is an interesting way to see inaccessible terrain, nearby
industrial areas and much more.  Just type in an address or lat and long,
and zoom, you're there, looking down from a height of your choosing.  I've
seen my son's new house and neighbourhood in RI without being there, and
looked at beeyards and potential locations, too.

The pictures you'll see are anywhere from several months to several years
old, however, so don't freak out if you don't see hives on your newer
locations -- or if your car is not in the driveway .  Also, some regions are
only covered with fuzzy pictures, while others have a fair bit of detail.

Anyone can download Google Earth for free at http://earth.google.com/.
Google Earth is a fair sized download, and uses quite a bit of bandwidth
when in use, but I've used it successfully on 28.8 dialup.  The program
works right away without any tweaking, but there is a learning curve to get
the best out of it.

It is also to email placemarks to others to share.

Here is  sample text from such an email:

---
You have been sent a Google Earth Placemark(tm).

If you have Google Earth installed, you can double-click on the attached
Placemark file and it will fly you to a location. If not, you will need to
install Google Earth first (available at http://earth.google.com).

Google Earth streams the world over wired and wireless networks enabling
users to virtually go anywhere on the planet and see places in photographic
detail.  This is not like any map you have ever seen.  This is a 3D model of
the real world, based on real satellite images combined with maps, guides to
restaurants, hotels, entertainment, businesses and more.  You can zoom from
space to street level instantly and then pan or jump from place to place,
city to city, even country to country.

Get Google Earth.  Put the world in perspective.

earth.google.com
---

allen

You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're
doing is recording it.
            -- Art Buchwald

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