[link.geek.maps]

[wispfox]

I am having _way_ too much fun with google's maps, to which ladytabitha linked. Among other people.

Even if it doesn't seem to have anything on their map other than North America. It's pretty, though! And it makes my brain very, very happy. I _like_ being able to zoom that easily. *plays with maps more*

Comments

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Zoom that easily? It seems like a standard "hit the zoomy buttons or drag the zoomy bar and it zooms" zoom. Or am I missing something? (I actually find the zoom kinda annoying, only moderately intuitive, and with a lousy balance of displaying enough detail and text for the zoom-level).

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Two zoom easily things:

1) I can double-click anywhere and it goes there smoothly. Smoothness!

2) I don't expect to be able to drag the zoomy bar, so that pleased me, although it's entirely possible that I never tried before on other map sites.

Really, I'm just easily map-fascinated. :)

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I'm used to single-clicking on interactive maps, which is why I didn't find the double-click (which I don't like) or the drag-around (which I actually do like a fair bit) ways to pan around the map until someone told me.

I don't think I've seen draggy zoom-bars that work quite like this, but I _have_ seen bars where one can click on any segment and it goes to that magnification, so the functionality is the same.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

The drag-around thing makes me feel like I can pick up the world and _SHAKE IT_!

I'm oddly pleased by this.

[ian-gunn.livejournal.com]

Warn us be for you do that, so I can grab onto something. :)

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

EARTHQUAKE!

[ian-gunn.livejournal.com]

MAPQUAKE!

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

But shaking the world is _fun_! And warning people is silly. ;)

[ian-gunn.livejournal.com]

*grin* True. You have seen this (http://www.starterupsteve.com/swf/snowglobe.html) one, right?

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Yep. :)

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

The most intuitive map zoomer I've found functioned opposite of this one -- move the slider up to zoom out. The cool part was that the slider was a hot air balloon -- balloon goes up, occupant sees more of the world. I can't remember where I saw that, though. Not yahoo nor expedia.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Balloon!

And yes, that makes more sense, in terms of which direction does what.

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

So with the prior mentioned lack of visual memory, why do you like maps so much? :)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Why would I need a visual memory to like maps?

Indeed, I would imagine that would make me like them _more_!

Anyway - it's because it's about the only way I can get a general sense of things when compared to specific places I have heard of or know about or know how to get to. I like the overview aspect of it all.

Also, maps make it harder for me to get lost.

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

I was apparently conflating memory for them with perception, which doesn't make all that much sense now that I think about it.

Overviews are neat! That's why we're making (tracing and emphasizing parts of) maps in one of my classes. That part's hard though. :/

[jasra]

I love maps. Always have. And I have a bad sense of direction. I like knowing where things are in relation to each other.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I like knowing where things are in relation to each other.

Yes. That. That very thing.

May I have the brain back now? :)

[jasra]

Yes, you may have it for today. :)

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

My sense of direction is very clustery. If I pay attention, then I know which way's north et cetera for familiar areas or new buildings. But I can get confused fairly easily by weird turns and such, so it's not automatic.

I tend to have pockets of familiar areas which aren't really connected; that can lead to much confusion if two of the blobs are mispositioned in my head.

[jasra]

Driving to work today, I noticed that I knew that I was heading west or north, but my brain does better with lefts and rights when driving. If I have time to think about it, I'm ok. (I was trying to see if I'd be able to give someone directions to my office.)

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

I can have trouble with it when I'm driving on the freeway, due to weird twists and turns. But on a semi-regular grid, I'm fine.

Sometimes it helps to sketch out turns, like, oh, a map! :)

[jasra]

Mountains help too. ;) (Hmmm... no Colorado appropriate icon.)

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

http://images.google.com/images?q=parker+colorado+mountains

:D

[jasra]

Here's my AIM icon. :) Pikes Peak from the Pikes Peak web cam site.

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

Small, but what little I can see is pretty.