Post by washi on Jul 20, 2017 9:17:21 GMT
LookoutCharley01 [Copyrighted free use], by Charles White (User:Firelookout), from Wikimedia Commons
Yesterday I got a message from alchemist251, who (in his capacity as a contributor on the GE and GM Help Forum) wanted to refer a client to the screen overlay compass tool that I had posted on the oGEC back in 2008, but couldn't do it because the graphic used, like hundreds, likely even thousands, of others I had entrusted to Photobucket image hosting service, was no longer functional. After thinking a moment, it occurred to me that a hosted image was hardly necessary in such a brief .kmz file, and while it might be slower to download, it should still be functional.
The overlay was created more than anything out of nostalgia for the days when I was a Forest Service lookout and smoke chaser. I asked Noisette if she knew if she knew of any comparable tool to the crude tool I had sent her. She didn't, but some time later she asked me if I had made any progress. I hadn't, but in the intervening months the idea had steeped in my head, and I thought I might know how to make a workable image. I created 20 or 30 drafts, and she kindly evaluated a half a dozen or so of them, until we got one we thought would suffice.
When I made it, the Ruler tool did not incorporate an azimuth of the measurement line, and that development rendered my little effort pretty much obsolete. I never bothered to revise it, but there is the odd use for it now and then, and for visually oriented people it may still have some enhance value over a numerical azimuth only.
I am posting it here because alchemist 251 might find 2 or 3 people for whom it might prove useful, and 1 or 2 of them might be willing to join in order to download it. It was a joy to briefly revisit the world of KML, and I suppose this may be the last remaining artifact of my passing here, as I try to live out the remainder of my life dealing with my disappointed trust in Google, Image Shack, Drop Box, Photo Bucket, and democratic government.
Truth to tell, I could learn to accept the first 4, if only I could come to believe again in the last.
The overlay was created more than anything out of nostalgia for the days when I was a Forest Service lookout and smoke chaser. I asked Noisette if she knew if she knew of any comparable tool to the crude tool I had sent her. She didn't, but some time later she asked me if I had made any progress. I hadn't, but in the intervening months the idea had steeped in my head, and I thought I might know how to make a workable image. I created 20 or 30 drafts, and she kindly evaluated a half a dozen or so of them, until we got one we thought would suffice.
When I made it, the Ruler tool did not incorporate an azimuth of the measurement line, and that development rendered my little effort pretty much obsolete. I never bothered to revise it, but there is the odd use for it now and then, and for visually oriented people it may still have some enhance value over a numerical azimuth only.
I am posting it here because alchemist 251 might find 2 or 3 people for whom it might prove useful, and 1 or 2 of them might be willing to join in order to download it. It was a joy to briefly revisit the world of KML, and I suppose this may be the last remaining artifact of my passing here, as I try to live out the remainder of my life dealing with my disappointed trust in Google, Image Shack, Drop Box, Photo Bucket, and democratic government.
Truth to tell, I could learn to accept the first 4, if only I could come to believe again in the last.
