Mapping Your Whereabouts

 

Anne Denton                                      http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~adenton

 

1.     Motivation: http://www.ted.com/talks/will_marshall_teeny_tiny_satellites_that_photograph_the_entire_planet_every_day/?language=en

 

2.     Open Google Earth (Applications -> Internet -> Google Earth) and travel around the globe once

a.     Search for Fargo, ND

b.     Zoom in until you find NDSU (you have to go north a bit, and a bit west)

 

3.     In a browser open https://www.google.com/earth/outreach/tutorials/annotate.html

a.     Follow tutorial until you are done with the portion “Add Placemark”

 

4.     Now create your own KML file

a.     Use the following text

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2">
    <Document>
        <name>KML_Test.kml</name>
        <Placemark>
            <name>Hello, Computer Science</name>
            <description>Here's where we are!</description>
            <Point>
                <coordinates>
                    -96.803455352783,46.89363354515,0
                </coordinates>
            </Point>
        </Placemark>
        <Placemark>
            <name>Hello, Physics</name>
            <description>Here's Physics</description>
            <Point>
                <coordinates>
                    -96.8015,46.8917,0
                </coordinates>
            </Point>
        </Placemark>
    </Document>
</kml>

 

b.     Open an editor: On Windows this could be Wordpad or Notepad, but in the lab, the easiest is emacs: Applications -> Programming
    Then select File -> Visit New File
    Save using filename HelloNDSU.kml

c.     Cut and past the above text into a new file

d.     Use Open File in Google Earth to open it (it should be in the directory with your username horizonsxx)

 

5.     You have just created your first data collection!

a.     Computer science is about data and algorithms

b.     KML is a special version of the more general XML

c.     XML documents are like small databases

d.     Try it out!  Add another placemark!