Real-Time Parking on Google Maps

SFpark

The San Francisco Municipal Authority has released a Google Map to help improve car parking in the city. The new map displays real-time information about where parking is available so drivers can quickly find open spaces.

As part of the new initiative San Francisco now periodically adjusts meter pricing to match demand. To help keep car drivers informed about the variable meter prices SFpark displays in real-time current prices.

Roads on the map are color-coded to reflect real-time meter pricing. The darker the shade of green of a road the higher its current pricing. It is also possible to view in real-time the current availability of parking spaces.

City owned parking garages are also displayed on the map. Rates at these garages will now also vary to match real-time demand.

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Minecraft Fan Art : Nether again

Voici un joli Fan Art du Nether dans lequel on retrouve les vilains de Minecraft. Certes, les Squelettes et les Creepers n'existent pas dans le Nether mais qu'importe...

Source : brobbeh

New York Dope Arrests on Google Maps

Sharing NYC Police Precinct Data

WNYC has used Google Maps to show the 19 New York City precincts with the highest arrest rates for the lowest level marijuana possession misdemeanours. The map was created to accompany two WYNC stories (1 & 2).

The two WYNC articles examine the large number of police stop and frisk arrests in New York for marijuana possession. Almost 90 percent of the people arrested for marijuana in the city are black or Latino.

The map shows the 19 precincts with the highest arrest rates. The precincts are shaded on the map to display the majority race or ethnicity, where one exists in the precinct. If you click on precinct you can view details on the number of stop and frisk stops, the number of arrests and a breakdown of the precinct population.

All the data for the map is available in the form of three fusion tables.

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Construction Minecraft : Château Fort

Certains joueurs de Minecraft voient grand, voire très grand. La preuve avec cet immense Château Fort fait de Bois et Cobblestone.

Bin Laden's Compound - Updated

Abbottabad, Pakistan

The location of Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad has been identified by local sources. The compound, that is described as having 4m-6m (12ft-18ft) walls and being eight times larger than other homes in the area, is to the south-east of a Pakistan Military Academy. The satellite imagery shown on this Google Map clearly matches photographs of the compound released by the Pentagon (pdf link from ABC).

Abbottbad resident and Twitter user Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) Tweeted what he says was the location of the crashed helicopter in the American attack on the compound. The helicopter is being reported as having crashed because of 'technical failure'.

The New York Times describes the compound as being "a large mansion on the outskirts of the town center, set on an imposing hilltop and ringed by 12-foot-high concrete walls topped with barbed wire."

Big hat-tips to Ogle Earth and the Google Earth Blog.

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Google Maps and jQuery

GMap3

GMap3 is a plugin for jQuery which allows users to create Google Maps with v3 of the maps API. The plug-in includes a number of options, including a right-click context menu (pictured above), marker clustering and Street View.

Sliding Information Window

This Google Maps and jQuery tutorial shows you how to create a nice sliding information window. If you follow this tutorial you can create a map with an information window that slides onto and off the map when you click on the map markers.

Google Maps Slider

This nice Google Maps demo applies a mouseover event to a map sidebar. When you mouseover a listing in the sidebar the map pans to the selected location.

JQuery & Google Maps Tutorial

This is a great tutorial about how map developers can use jQuery to create custom Google Maps. I particularly like Step 7. of the tutorial which shows you how to replace the default information window in the Google Maps API with a custom information window.

Rotating Map Demo

Chris Heilmann has created his own rotating map demo using CSS3 and jQuery.

Use the 'L' and 'R' keys to rotate the map. Also try and pan the map for a little added fun.

Chris has posted a brief explanation on his blog Wait Till I Come! that will help you if you would like to replicate this effect in your own maps.

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The Best Google Maps of the Week

Fleck

I've been playing Fleck all week. It is probably the best game yet created with Google Maps.

In the game you can build a home anywhere in North America. You can decorate your house with trees and plants and other decorations. You can team up with other players and fight zombies. You can complete scavenger hunts that send you all across the USA searching for goodies. You can even build an empire by buying the models of real-world restaurants in the game.

The game features some cool touches. For example many American landmarks have been modelled in the game. Each location also has real-time weather, so if you are in Seattle and it happens to be snowing in Seattle it will also be snowing in the game.

Generate a Panorama

'Generate a Panorama' lets you click on a Google Map and see a representation of the panoramic view from that location.

For example, below is the generated view from the summit of Mont Blanc looking due west. As you can see all the peaks in your view are marked on the created panorama.



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