I think, at this rate, my road is going to be the most well-photographed road in all of Street Maps!

I live in Norwich, and I’m fairly sure the Google Car guy is staying at a hotel about 10 mins walk away from me. I often see him getting ready as I walk to work, and packing up again as I walk home. The camera is mounted on top of the car (a black hatchback Seat I think), and folds down with a waterproof cover when it’s not in use. There are magnetic Google plates on the side of the car, but these are removed every night (a shame, I think they’d look good on *my* car!!). Also, I spotted him one day when it was really rainy, driving somewhere, but with all the gear packed up. I guess he was going somewhere and hoping it was going to clear up soon.

Spotted on Google Maps looking shifty…

photo

For once, a technical advancement that includes Norwich! That’s a bit unfair, but anyway. Google Street Maps. Imagine Google Maps, but instead of satellite photos, imagine street-level photos. Along every road. Both sides. 360 degrees. All of central Norwich. In great detail.

This affects many towns and cities across the UK, and is old technology if you go to the US, but it’s exciting for Norwich at least. This is one of those advancements that your parent’s generation, maybe even your generation, would not have thought possible: just because of the sheer scale of the job.

Anyway – here’s a little bit of central Norwich. Enjoy.

Aside: for one reason or another, the only part of central Norwich which is excluded from the roaming eye of the Street Map cameras is the stretch of Thorpe Road from the station to the Rosary Road turn-off. Feel free to expound any number of rumours about why this may be, but I have my own ideas, involving my former employer…

This is 3 weeks late in coming, but I’ve been really busy!

At the beginning of February I started a new job. I no longer work for Moneyfacts, I now work for Pine Solutions.

Pine Solutions happen to be the UK’s largest online furniture retailer. Contrary to their name, they sell not only pine things but also oak stuff, painted stuff and a load of different sorts of things from around the world.

I’ve joined them as a software developer. I already know a few people there from previous jobs, so it’s been easy to fit in.

Anyway, that’s where I am.

I had some problems actually getting Google Latitude installed on my phone.

I have a HTC Touch (Orange SPV M3100), and I already had a version of Google Maps installed. The error I was getting, when I went to run the CAB file from the Latitude installation page was:

“Installation of GoogleMaps_compressed.cab was unsuccessful.”

I tried uninstalling Google Maps, but still it wouldn’t work.

I have now got it working. I’ve no idea if this will work for anyone else, but I’m writing it down in case it helps anyone. If it does, let me know!

1. Uninstall all previous versions. Turn off/on again.

2. Download version 2.0.1.27 of Google Maps (an older version) to your computer by following this link:

http://www.google.com/gmm/winm_apps/v2.0.1.27/L1/GoogleMaps.CAB?source=gmmdesktop

3. Drag the CAB file to your phone and install Google Maps.

4. Go back to the Latitude page (google.com/latitude) on your phone and download the CAB. It should now run OK and automatically remove the old version.

Maybe the Latitude version (version 3.0.0.xx) requires something which was in version 2.0.1.27?  Anyway, it works, and that’s the important thing!

Google have just released Latitude – a new feature of their mobile maps program which “knows” where you are and lets other see your location. Using either cell-based location or (for smarter phones) GPS, it’ll feed back your location so your friends can see it on a google map.

Expect “what i’m doing now” style status options, or, as one of my collegues just called it, “favours for favours!”. Also, expect to see Starbucks paying through the nose to be able to txt you 20% discount coupons every time you’re within throwing distance of an outlet….

Find it here: http://google.com/latitude

Privacy is dead, but the alternative can be fun…

I’m not going to make a habit of passing off every round-robin link I come across as a post, but this made me laugh out loud, which endeared it to me. Then the bloke who sits next to me (and who used to Virgin) started crying with laughter, so I thought it was probably worth it.

http://timesnews.typepad.com/news/2009/01/apparently-sir-richard-branson-thevirgin-bossthought-this-was-the-funniestletter-of-complaint-hed-ever-received——dear.html

It’s a letter of complaint to Richard Brason of Virgin fame. Enjoy.

We spent the weekend at some friends in Uxbridge this weekend. On the saturday we went for a touristly wander through the capital, taking in the changing of the guard and some classic sights, before caving in and having a pint at the founders arms (fantastic selection of Young’s ales). After having lunch there we contined on the Fleet Street where we had a drink or two in the oldest Irish pub in London (apparently). Exact locations and names fail me from here on in, but it’s incredible what you can find in London if you know where to look (and our friends certainly did!). The Ice bar, another pub that was like being inside a massive tree and a Shisha bar completed a really good evening.

On Sunday we bade our farewells early on in order to get to the O2, and the BodyWorlds exhibition. If you haven’t been, or at least seen the pictures, it’s well worth doing. Fascinating, scientific and thought-provoking.

So… yesterday I bought Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I had a load of things to do last night and so I didn’t get to do anything with it other than stick it in the drive and run an update on it. I got as far as the main menu and it was bedtime.

So I leave work at 5, sort out tea, get everything ready and site down to enjoy. And there’s an update! And it’s 140MB! And I can’t play anything until it’s done.

That’s typical that is.

I used Fog Creek’s Copilot for the first time last night. It’s remote control software, designed for helping people with their computers from afar.

I tried it to help out Mum, who was having problems burning CDs. Something to do with the speed at which it was burning seemed to be wrecking the discs and slowing it down seemed to help. We also went over some stuff in Media Player, burning and ripping and stuff. I don’t use Media Player at all, so I would have been fairly useless were I not able to see exactly what she was looking at and trying to do.

I found it really easy to use. Easy of setup by the remote party is a must, as by definition the people you’ll be helping might not always be the most computer-savvy. Copilot assigns you an invitation code which you can either read out over the phone for the other people to type in to a site, or it will send an email with a link to click.

Really helpfully, as you move through the process (setting up, requesting invitaion code, sending email to remote party) it shows you precisly what the other person will be seeing with canned screenshots. This means you can troubleshoot any issues before you actually get connected.

For the remote user, once you’ve clicked on the email link, it’s one click to accept (and read!) T’s&C’s, one click to download the app, one click to save it, one click to run it, and one click to say “Yes, I know Tom and I want him to connect”. That’s it.

Functionally, it appears to be based on the VNC source and “just works”. Being able to see (and control) what the other person is doing has a massive effect on helping out family and friends. I’d certainly use it again.

I opted for the “24 hours” pass which cost $5. You can buy a month’s pass for $20 on subscription if you’re planning on using it more than 4 times a month.

As an aside, I really like the fact that everything that is part of the process, like getting an invitation code, entering payment details, downloading software, is done in large fonts, bold colours and a design that leaves you in no doubt about what’s going on. I see so many forms that are all done in 12 point, so it’s nice to see some big, Tonka Toy fields:  it’s much easier on the eye if you’ve got the space.

I came across Copilot from reading the Joel on Software blog. Joel is the CEO of Fog Creek, the company with the amazing office.