nasa world wind « gps « outdoor living

I've just started playing with NASA World Wind and I like it a lot. NASA World Wind is a searchable virtual globe on your desktop that downloads increasing levels of detail as you zoom into places of interest. It is an addictive way to blow lots of bandwidth. Get NASA World Wind.

Of particular interest to me is the fact that there is a noticeable prevalence of New Zealand-related stuff on both the NASA World Wind site and at World Wind Central, the official companion site for all things World Wind related. For example, lots of the examples seem to show Christchurch, N.Z. (where my Mum and Dad live), and N.Z. data and links seem to be at the top of most lists. This is great for me (and other Kiwis) 'cause it means we've got a product that gives us a lot more information about our neck of the woods than, say, Google Earth does (Google Earth is very US/UK/Europe focused, and fair enough, too - most of its users will be from those places). Also of real interest is the Open Source nature of World Wind (which Google Earth most definitely isn't). Before I get too bogged down in product comparison here, it is worth pointing out that whilst outwardly similar, NASA World Wind and Google Earth are very different products, aimed at very different audiences - for the NASA World Wind side of that story click here.