Russian Town Puts Giant Smiley On Google Maps 280
Toramir writes "Citizens of the Russian town Chelyabinsk calculated when the satellite, QuickBird, which takes images for Google Earth and Google Maps, would cross above their city and used people to make a giant smiley face. A rock concert on the main square attracted many people and everyone got a yellow cape. It looks like someone at Google was quicker than usual to put up the new data. Maybe Google likes the idea of an entire town working hard to get its 15 minutes of fame. The article has a screenshot of Google Maps and images taken directly at the event."
You know what... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You know what... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You know what... (Score:5, Informative)
Google will have to remove the pic (Score:5, Funny)
or the copyright owners of the smiley face will issue a DMCA take down notice.
Whether that would really happen or not, the news has become so much like the Onion that I kind of expect asshattery like that.
Re:Google will have to remove the pic (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, smiley face owns copyright on DMCA!
In future Soviet USA, they skip take down notice. Instead send you straight to a DMCA Forced Work Camp in Alaska. Where you will transcribe entire works of Disney, by hand.
There ain't one (Score:2)
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Uh, given that the smiley face is Dryco's logo a DMCA takedown is the last thing I'd worry about. Now a pocket chainsaw...
In soviet Russia.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
In soviet Russia.. (Score:5, Funny)
But where is it? (Score:3, Informative)
I don't see it on Google Maps:
http://tinyurl.com/butwhereisit [tinyurl.com]
Up close and personal - the long version:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=+Chelyabinsk+&ie=UTF8&ll=55.159908,61.402202&spn=0.001906,0.005686&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr [google.com]
Fake images (Score:4, Informative)
You can see the search used in the image. Search for for 'Tscheljabinsk, russia' and zoom in. You can see that you end up in the same square, but there is no smiley there!
Also: cars were removed from the image close to the square, but they're in the same locations further away. Light hits the image from the same angle, which means same time and date difference from equinox).
Re:Fake images (Score:5, Informative)
Furthermore the fake screenshot depicts the very exact same thing as the rooftop picture. What's more pathetic, that they actually did it but not for when Google would actually shoot (is there even any way to actually know that?) or that the Slashdot "editors" didn't even see that coming.
I guess that's Journalism 2.0, in which it's the user who does the editor's job of spotting the bullshit.
Re:Fake images (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess that's Journalism 2.0, in which it's the user who does the editor's job of spotting the bullshit.
Is this really a bad thing though? I first watched CNN during the first gulf war. They were kind of dumb, but they had people on the ground in Baghdad and those people stuck their cameras out of the window and sounded scared but enthusiastic. Every time there was a crisis they'd fly someone out there and broadcast anything cool they filmed. There wasn't much attempt at analysis, but it was still pretty interesting
Now when I watch CNN they seemed to have far more stuff back home. Every half our or so they run an advert for CNN "Eco Solutions" which is the opposite of journalism - they know the story before the leave the office and select reports that fit it. There are far more talking heads back in the studio repeating conventional wisdom from the US. Frankly this is boring - I don't care what middle class Americans believe is happening.
I'd much rather just see a stream of images from what is actually happening and make up my own mind. There less editorial control the better.
Re:Fake images (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps you've forgotten that the purpose of news isn't to inform, it's to coerce opinion.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
No, the purpose of a TV channel is to sell adverts, make the journalists feel important and not tell the viewers anything that might upset their world view. It's actually quite the opposite of trying to coerce opinion, I actually think there's an element of karma whoring going on.
Re:Fake images (Score:5, Funny)
No, the purpose of a cinema is to sell popcorn. It's actually quite the opposite of karma whoring.
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No, the purpose of a cinema is to sell popcorn.
Really? That's funny because the last time I went there the only thing I saw people buying were tickets.
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One more reason why it's best to watch films at home.
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They were kind of dumb
1GW was when I realized how completely stupid most reporters are, and how in over their heads they were when dealing with military issues, asking questions like, "so which units are going to attack, and where?".
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They could just have photo shopped it in.
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That sounds more like the google aerial photography. For which Google, as they did in Australia, specifically issues a press release and an online tool to track the location of the plane so the general population could form interesting assemblies to be later viewed on google maps.
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Re:Fake images (Score:5, Insightful)
Never mind the fact that they say they timed when the satellite would come over, but it's an aerial photo.
Also, they did a similar thing on James May's 20th Century, where he made a giant space invader to be captured on a satellite image.
ÐzÑÐнÑOE Ñ...& (Score:5, Informative)
It's a bad photoshop (Score:5, Informative)
Compare these two:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IeJHb-2CVGM/SNUFiyTlEHI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/shQMNh5h89o/s1600-h/smiley-1000.jpg [blogspot.com]
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=tscheljabinsk+russland&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=iceweasel-a&t=h&ll=55.160037,61.403425&spn=0.004793,0.011179&z=17 [google.com]
The cars on all the side streets and all the shadows are exactly the same. Someone just photoshoped out the cars on the main street and put in the smily. Nothing to see here.
Re:It's a bad photoshop (Score:4, Insightful)
To be fair, since the other pictures look authentic, I'd say the meeting really happened. It's just that Google wasn't fast enough to record it. That shows you a limitation of Google :-) There are still a few things you can do without Google noticing right away.
Alain - fairsoftware.net
Re:It's a bad photoshop (Score:4, Insightful)
Nice try, though.
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Well, if it was overcast when they had the concert
Then just look for them on Google Deep IR Earth.
Re:It's a bad photoshop (Score:5, Informative)
Except that the high resolution photographs on google are not taken by satellite. They're aerial photographs.
So the entire exercise was based on a fiction, and the organisers probably knew this.
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Also, the shadows in the event photos are nothing like the shadows in the Maps "screenshot".
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Re:It's a GOOD photoshop (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Fooling a /. "editor" doesn't make it a good photoshop. It took me about a second to realize it was a hoax, and less than 30 more to look up the above link. I guess that was a bit too much effort for samzenpus.
Mad (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Lenina? (Score:2, Interesting)
Do they still celebrate Lenin as a hero after the crap they endured because of him and his acolytes?
Yes, Lenina (Score:5, Informative)
If a town or a street got renamed during the Soviet period, after 1992 its name was in most cases restored to the pre-revolutionary version. However, if the street was built during the Soviet period, of course it would not get renamed, since it never had a pre-Soviet name in the first place. Renaming a street just because its name is no longer politically fashionable is akin to rewriting history, no better than what the Soviets were doing.
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I wonder then if Germans kept the names of the streets build during the Hitler regime. The name of the streets change according to the political situation, in what world do you live?
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Renaming a street just because its name is no longer politically fashionable is akin to rewriting history, no better than what the Soviets were doing.
BUT Would YOU want to live on Hitler street?
Don't bother replying. I just Godwined the conversation.
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That's only proof that Americans are smart, they can sell names... if Russians were smart would have sold all Lenina and Revolution Street names to Gazprom. Wouldn't you like to live on Gazprom Street instead of Lenina?
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Oh man, check the other street names on that picture. They include
"Soviet Street", "Kirov Street", and "Revolution Plaza".
That's nothing (Score:5, Funny)
You should see how many things in the U.S. are named after Ronald Reagan!
Re:That's nothing (Score:5, Funny)
But there's only one thing named after George Bush, sadly that thing is still running the country.
Re:Lenina? (Score:5, Informative)
Anyway, almost every city in Russia still has Sovetskaya street and the Lenin square (complete with a statue). My own home town, Tambov, also has Karl Marx street, Komsomolskaya street etc. Some streets that were named after the more odious figures were renamed in the 90s (one was named after Antonov-Ovseenko, who was the commissar in charge of suppressing the anti-communist Tambov peasant rebellion in 1920s, and personally signed the order to use poison gas against the rebel), but most of the "generic" names were left untouched.
Re: (Score:2)
Last year I bicycled across Russia.
My experience is many Russian cities still have a Lenina street. A Lenin statue in the main square is also still common. In Ulan-Ude is the world's largest Lenin head (a google image search shows several examples). When we cycled through Krasnoyarsk, someone had fun and had papered over one of the "Lenina" signs to make it "Putina".
The year before I bicycled through Ukraine and then via Kursk, Tambov, Penza to Samara. In Western Ukraine there were not (no longer) Lenin
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You are an idiot, how do you know I'm American, and if I am how do you know I like Bush? Oh, wait, I just responded to an Anonymous Coward...
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Palin is a heroine. She once drilled oil with her bare hands.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Right... and Communism is good but it was badly implemented *rolls eyes*
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
Right... and Communism is good but it was badly implemented *rolls eyes*
Hehe there's the proof that you are American right there.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Read about "ad hominem argument" in a dictionary. How is it relevant what I am?
Re: (Score:2)
One might say the same about capitalism.
Short selling a legitimate market force? Methinks not.
Re: (Score:2)
Is there anybody (except Bill Gates and Ballmer) who says that Windows is good in theory?
In sovied russia, tech.slashdot is the new idle (Score:5, Insightful)
I had hoped idle would stay confined to idle. This is not technology.
This ... is ... IDLE!!! </300>
One consolation... (Score:2)
... everybody involved in Idle dies horribly at the end.
hmm (Score:5, Funny)
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In Soviet Russia... (Score:5, Funny)
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Overcast and that's not how it works (Score:5, Interesting)
There's about 20 "I don't see it in Google Maps" and "It was photoshopped!" posts that don't mention any of the basic reasons why this didn't work.
1. Google Maps isn't realtime, some areas have photos updated every few years. My house is a picture from over a year ago, for instance. Just because the bird goes overhead doesn't mean the content goes into Google Maps, and even if it did, it would only go in for a few days until the next pass, so... concept fail.
2. Did anyone actually LOOK at the photos taken on the ground at the event? It was OVERCAST. These are not magical Star Trek satellites with super inverse polaron field vision that sees through clouds.
Why aren't other folks touching on these VERY BASIC FLAWS with the clever premise?
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You're missing out the fact that the high resolution images on Google are not taken by satellite. They're aerial survey shots; i.e. taken from a plane.
The satellite images used on Google don't get near resolving the kind of detail you'd need for this kind of stunt. They're used where aerial survey shots aren't available.
Looks creepy (Score:2)
Not the reputation a town wants.
This was exciting... for about 5 minutes (Score:2, Interesting)
Here's an example of the real thing (Score:4, Interesting)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=target+stores+chicago&ie=UTF8&ll=42.006225,-87.886505&spn=0.012883,0.017509&t=k&z=16 [google.com]
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It's not for the sake of Google Maps, it's to be visible to passengers in passing planes. Notice the major international airport (O'Hare) about 500 m south-west of that spot ...
Here's [google.com] another company logo just to the south of O'Hare. Sometimes you see them further away if the building is in a flight-path. Here [google.com] and here [google.com] are a couple several km away from Auckland Airport; notice the different orientation of the logos, depending on the angle the building will be visible from.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Shh! You FOOL! Those are Wall Mart's cover story for their impending death-satellite campaign. You're not supposed to mention them until AFTER the attack.
One more word outa you, and you'll be a door greeter in Topeka for the next 5 years.
ALL HAIL WALLMART!
Re: (Score:2)
Lots of supermarkets do. In Drumchapel in the north-west of Glasgow there is a large B&Q and a large Sainsbury's, both with their logos on the roof and clearly visible to people in aircraft flying into Glasgow Airport (Google map [google.co.uk], when Runway 23 is in use (that's slightly to the west). Down near the Clyde, a little to the east, you can still see the name painted on the roof of the old Yarrow shipyard building. It's pretty faded now, presumably because Yarrow is gone (thank you ultra-right economic po
Never mind. (Score:5, Interesting)
It was just a stupid promo action for the local Internet service provider (is74.ru). They also gathered these people to sign the petition "please introduce a $15 unlimited Internet plan". Although they did not collect enough signatures, they still introduced it.
Also, they promised to hire a plane to get rid of the clouds (which would not help anyway - google maps will never add just a 500×500 meter shot to their maps if everything else is covered by clouds. They also promised that you'll be able to see the shots on Google Maps the next day - which is also a blatant lie. This ISP already had a terrible reputation for cutting the optical cables of its competitors, and now this.
The most irradiated smiley on Earth (Score:3, Insightful)
Whatever (Score:2, Interesting)
Bad teeth (Score:2, Funny)
(Disclaimer: I say this as a Hungarian with bad teeth.
It was actually explained in one of the links ... (Score:2, Informative)
Read the discussion in the link after the images taken on the event.
This was a real attempt, but it was acknowledged (by people who were there) as failed, probably beccause of the overcast.
It was a ploy event for a local IPS (which according to the commenter happens to have bad reputation anyway).
Case closed?
And maybe it was just because its something nice ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe Google likes the idea of an entire town working hard to get its 15 minutes of fame
goddamn everything doesnt need to be negative, you know. maybe someone thought it was something fuckin' nice to happen, and people to see ?
i like our culture, but this 'sarcastic pessimistic know-it-all zit' thing sometimes fails badly. gets tiring.
bleh (Score:4, Funny)
I'm more impressed that they made their park a union jack, I guess that was put up a 100+ years ago, so maybe they just have a history of sucking up to the powers that be..
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Where is it? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Funny)
That makes me angry. They go through all the trouble of handing out yellow capes to hundreds of people. They tell them where to stand, and they probably have to wait there for quite a time while the satellite passes over. They have to block traffic, and business, etc. Then some humourless drone down at Google goes and photoshops all that work away. It was probably done by the same sourpuss person who got rid of the "Swim across the Atlantic" instruction you used to get when asking for directions from New York to London, England.
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Look again. Even the moving cars (the ones that have not been photoshopped away) are in exactly the same place.
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Re: (Score:2)
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Funny)
For those who absolutely refused to read the article, here is an artist's impression
: )
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Considering the illogical thing to gang up people on a street with traffic this seems to be a photochop.
But at least it's a good joke!
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's 3 bytes actually, he added a space there ;)
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Funny)
I disagree. I can provide a better artist's impression: :D
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Funny)
^_^
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Nothing in Russian google maps
http://maps.google.ru/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&q=chelyabinsk+russia&ie=UTF8&ll=55.160141,61.402341&spn=0.005075,0.016522&t=h&z=17 [google.ru]
Re:Where exactly? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmmm.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
It appears as if the smiley was photoshopped in or out of one of the pictures.
Yes, it appears as if the smiley may have been added to the image using Adobe Photoshop software. Adobe Trademark Use [adobe.com]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Off-topic, I know, but I'd never seen this before, and I found it quite funny.
Trademarks are not verbs, therefore verbs are not trademarks, therefore 'photoshopped' is not a trademark, and can therefore be used freely. Or am I applying logic where none applies? (Yes, I know, trademark law probably covers stuff like this.)
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Funny)
Off-topic, I know, but I'd never seen this before, and I found it quite funny.
Trademarks are not verbs, therefore verbs are not trademarks, therefore 'photoshopped' is not a trademark, and can therefore be used freely. Or am I applying logic where none applies? (Yes, I know, trademark law probably covers stuff like this.)
I tried to Google for an authoritative answer, but didn't come up with anything.
Re:Where exactly? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah... "I gimped Bob into the company photo" will go over real well.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It was definitely 'shopped, but I did manage to find a real instance of this happening. It was in Central Park, NY, weird...
Here's a screenshot:
http://05lan.dyndns.org/public/centralpark.JPG [dyndns.org]
This one is definitely not photoshopped.
Re: (Score:2)
type Chelyabinsk into google maps. the marker is where they assembled, but I cant see the smiley yet.