Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

Facebook just added a new feature they’re calling “Link Sharing.” Basically, after installing the following bookmarklet into your taskbar, you can share links on facebook with your friends:

javascript:
var d = document;
var f = 'http://www.facebook.com/share';
var l = d.location;
var e = encodeURIComponent;
var p = '.php?src=bm&v=3&u=' + e(l.href) + '&t=' + e(d.title);
try {
    if(!/^(.*\.)?facebook\.[^.]*$/.test(l.host))
       throw(0);
    share_internal_bookmarklet()
} catch(z){
    a = function(){
    if(!window.open(f+'r'+p,'sharer', 'toolbar=0, status=0, resizable=0, width=626, height=436'))
        l.href=f+p;
    };
    if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent)) {
        setTimeout(a,0);
    } else {
        a();
    }
}
void(0);


Clicking on this link will popup a Facebook “sharing” window which looks like this:

Once you actually share the media, they appear on your wall, and the walls and link inboxes of the people you choose to share with:

You can read more at the official facebook blog or from TechCrunch’s Facebook Beta Testing Social Bookmarking.

If you’re looking for the 1.20e patch information, there’s a new post for that!

Blizzard just released the Warcraft III 1.20d patch for Battle.net, which means that everyone playing using no-cd versions of 1.20c has been scrambling to find the latest patch, crack, or nocd. Fortunately for you, I’m going to mirror it here, along with instructions on how to upgrade to the latest version:

1. Find your Warcraft III directory, usually C:\Program Files\Warcraft III
2. Rename the 1.20c cracked exe war3.exe to war3-old.exe
3. Rename the old 1.20c non-cracked exe war3.120 to war3.exe
4. Download the Blizzard 1.20d patch and install it
5. Download the 1.20d nocd and install it

At this point, you should now be able to play Warcraft III on the Battle.net servers without using a cd. You’ll still need a valid serial number, though, which means you’ve already bought the game. This is just a convenience for us lazy gamers who want to dota without sticking in the Frozen Throne cd every time.

Yahoo announced recently that they have added global satellite imagery to their beta maps project. The US is covered at 1m per pixel, the world at a minimum of 15m per pixel. Now you can view Tibetan monestaries while at the same time cruising the streets of Phoenix. Even more, their images are blended seamlessly and color-corrected to match each other. This is a huge problem with Google and MSN Maps, which show seams and mismatched colors.

Now, let’s take a look at what Cornell University looks like in all three systems. Comparing or benchmarking these various web 2.0 mapping applications is important. First up is the gross-anatomy, a section of Ithaca at roughly the same zoom level:

Google Maps is already pixelated, chunky, off-color, and generally unreadable. I can tell there’s a lake and urban structure here, but little else.

Windows Live Local shows much greater resolution, but the color is black-and white. There’s also a noticeable contrast change across a stitched section.

Yahoo Maps is beautiful. There’s natural color, no stitching, and good resolution. Let’s take a look at how the three big players handle maximal zoom:

Google can’t get any closer. Its database of images sucks. No high res here!

MSN is very, very clear, but black and white. It’s probably a little better than the Yahoo offering, but the lack of color is quite irritating.

Yahoo has decent resolution and very good color. Although not quite as clear as MSN, here consistency matters more than patches of high-resolution.