ShermanAndGreg Technology and Business

All Roads Lead to NYC

Flickr user Scloopy has created a rather beautiful photoset ‘Everywhere to Here’ of Google Maps screenshots, showing traffic directions to a particular direction from just about everywhere else. Also check out his cool Chrome Canopy Experiment.

CrackBerry

I’m sure no criticism is implied in this Street View of a BlackBerry ad.

Google Maps Imaginary Town

In the UK, Google’s map coverage is so good it has even mapped towns that the locals didn’t know were there. The town Argleton is clearly shown on Google Maps in the north west of England, even though no such town exists.

The fact that the town doesn’t actually exist didn’t stop the Walking Home to 50 blog packing up a picnic and setting off for a day-trip.

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Ken Bridge was pruning roses when
he heard he had been made chairman of the organising
committee for Hampden’s celebrations this weekend.

He had discovered it would be 130 years this year since
Hampden was declared a borough in September 1879. He then
bumped into Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton and said something
should be done to mark it.

So Mr Bridge called a meeting of some of the older identities
in Hampden – and promptly forgot to go. It was Mr Familton
who found him in the roses and delivered the news of his
appointment.

That meeting was in September last year and committee
meetings have been held every month since.

The event will start tomorrow with registration and a “meet
and greet” in the Hampden Hall from 7pm.

On Saturday, there will be a community market and displays
and demonstrations in and around the hall. At 3pm, there will
be a re-enactment of the proclamation of Hampden as a
borough.

A social evening and dance will be held in the hall at night.

On Sunday, there will be a combined ecumenical church service
in the Hampden Presbyterian Church. In the afternoon, there
will be skateboard, gum-boot-throwing and sandcastle
competitions, a pet parade and Burt Munro beach motorbike
time trials, with talent quests at night.

A mini cavalcade, possum and rabbit shoot, and ecogaining
(described as part Amazing Race, part rogaine, part
orienteering) will be held on Monday.

There had already been 100 registrations, with some people
coming from the North Island.

Hampden was named after John Hampden (1595-1643), a
17th-century English parliamentarian, opponent of King
Charles 1 and civil war leader.

The town was surveyed and planned by John W. Thompson and the
streets were drawn up on a grid map in England.

Hampden was proclaimed a borough on September 8, 1879, and a
mayor and councillors governed until the 1960s.

It had been envisaged Hampden would become a large
settlement, with the port at Moeraki, but that did not occur
and many of the planned roads were never built, Mr Bridge
said.

However, three churches were built, a botanical garden was
planted and, in true English village style, there was a
common and a town square.

In years gone by, basket-makers, bakers, butchers and
milliners plied their trade in the township and it once had a
bank. At its peak, the population was about 561 but it was
now about 230, Mr Bridge said.

A booklet has been printed for the celebrations and a more
detailed book of the district’s history will be printed next
year.

Taking part in the proclamation re-enactment will be
particularly special for Mr Familton. His great-uncle,
William Familton, served on the Hampden Borough Council.

When a Familton family reunion was held, 21 posies were
placed on the graves of family members in the Hampden
Cemetery, including that of his great-great-grandfather, also
Alex Familton.