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James R. Van Zandt wrote:

>
> The Google site http://www.google.com/maps actually needs no help.
> You can type something like 47.263403,-122.48271 into the search field
> and bring up a map and/or satellite photo of that location.  And "link
> to this page" will give you a string that includes the latitude and
> longitude.

True.  Google seems to be the one site that obviously supports L/Lo
input.  Other sites (such as Yahoo) will accept it but it's a hidden
interface.   The site I referred to, boulter.com/gps, links to 14
different mapping sites.

I have a pair of friends who two years ago took early retirement, sailed
out of San Francisco bay on their 50' ketch, and turned left.  Right now
they're in Panama deciding on whether to go east or west.  One fun thing
they do every now and then is to send some of their friends nothing but
a latitude and longitude and ask "where are we?"   The boulter site has
proven invaluable since it links to nautical charts and a variety of
maps (many of the common mapping programs don't cover the underdeveloped
world).  The most fun I had at their challenge was to be able to reply
(to a L/Lo in the Gulf of California) "looks like you're anchored in
about 20 ft of water halfway between Isla Alameda and mainland, about
1-1/2 miles south of the lighthouse at Punta Lobos, and by the way, does
the hotel you're anchored off of really have a nude beach?"  (no, I
didn't determine the latter from the boulter site, it was a Google
search on the town they were anchored near that produced that tidbit)

>
> Come to think of it, they could just adjust the mirror twice a year.
>

;-)

Back to Google:  As an IT professional, one thing that really awes me
about Google is the flexibility of their human interface.  They do a
really good job of interpreting input.  An excellent example (in
addition to their mapping program) is their calculator.  Phrases like
"speed of light in furlongs per fortnight" will produce an answer...

Lu Abel

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