Chip 2004 November/Chip_2004-11_cd1.bin/zkuste/planetaria/download/winglobe/wglobe21.exe/data.z/readme.txt

Text File | 2003-11-10 | 12KB | 260 lines

                WinGlobe 2 ╜
            program and data (c) Dirk Djuga 1998,2003

              Email: [e-mail]
           WWW: http://www.djuga.net/winglobe.html


WinGlobe is Shareware.
You have to pay for it if you want to keep it.
It's free for educational institutions.
To pay send $15 or equivalent in your own currency, cash or check, to

Dirk Djuga
Johannesstr. 9a
D-70176 Stuttgart
Germany

Or register online by credit card at
https://secure.element5.com/register.html?productid=102107&language=English

Let me know about wrong data like time, population, any missing major cities or wrong names.


DESCRIPTION:

WinGlobe is a tiny earth that sits on your desktop. While it does so it can show countries
and major cities (about 2800). It knows the population and the current local time of
each city. It also shows where it is day or night - and it shows the current weather.


IMPORTANT: WARRANTY DISCLAIMER
The author makes no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including any warranties of
fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will the author be liable for any incidental
or consequential damages arising from the use of, or inability to use, this program.

In particular you must NOT assume that the data that is shown is always accurate!


DISTRIBUTION:

You can copy WinGlobe freely and pass it around for free, as long as this file is included.

WinGlobe may not be distributed as part of or for use with a commercial product without
written permission by the author, with the following exception:
You have permission to include WinGlobe in a commercial Shareware CDROM or other collection,
together with other software, as long as the presence of WinGlobe is not the main selling
argument.
If you include WinGlobe in any such package (Shareware-CDROM or otherwise) please
keep me informed.


FEATURES:

You can left-click and drag the globe to spin it. If the globe is maximized you need just
click to recenter it, it is too large then to drag-and-spin.

Right click anywhere to get the menu. Choose "Location..." to get information for the
location that you clicked. You can also search for a place there based on the
latitude/longitude, or a country's or city's name. Just enter part of the name and leave the
field. Or click the button next to the city or country field to pick a place from
a list. The list will change to match what you enter. If you click a name in the list the
location dialog will switch to that place.
It also shows the distance between the current and the previous location, as the crow flies.
Push "Go there!" or [Return] to spin the globe to the current location.
Click the button with the plane to get extended information about the city from the Internet.

Click "Zoom in" to get a closer look.

Click "Options" in the menu to choose the features to be displayed. You can display a
lat/lon grid, country names, city names, city markers, country boundaries and weather.
While "day and night" is checked, the globe is iluminated according to the true sun position.
Uncheck it to get a sun that is always over your left shoulder.
"Magic Mouse" hilights the country, and city that is nearest to the mouse cursor.

There are various other options that allow you to tweak WinGlobes appearance and behaviour.

You can drag the information that is shown in the Location dialog to other applications that
support OLE, like Word, Excel or Wordpad (a simple editor for formated text that is included
 in Windows)
Just click on a free spot in the dialog and start dragging. The cursor will change when you
are on a window where you can drop the text.

About weather:
==============
WinGlobe can show the current weather for places all over the world. When you launch WinGlobe
for the first time, there is no weather. Go to Options->Weather and enable the automatic
weather download option, or click [Update now] to download weather manually.
Weather can be shown as icons on the globe - which is a little ludicrous since there are
about 3000 weather stations - but it will also show in a small panel in the location dialog.
This panel also visualizes day and night. You can click the panel to update weather immediately,
but this will only get the latest observations.
Be careful with the automatic update options if you're connected to the Internet via a dialup
connection!


About time:
===========
Maybe you didn't know - time is a political thing. Where there are no watches, there
is no time. Maybe you think there is a place on the Internet or in your city library where
you can look up the current time in any spot on earth. You can't. It works like this: The
president of Taka-Tuka announces on May 21st 1998 that henceforth the country of Taka-Tuka
is divided into 24 time zones, based on the 24 local pubs. And that on each 3rd
Sunday of December, at 2:57 AM, the clock is turned back to the president's wife's birthday.
So to know the current time of a spot in Taka-Tuka you have to drink a beer in each of the
24 local pubs and give a birthday present to the first lady (she prefers shoes).

I've been there, did that, and so I believe that WinGlobe has the most comprehensive time
information available. Please tell me at [e-mail] when you find
a time that is off, so that I can correct it.

About the earh that WinGlobe shows:
===================================
The earth was composed of data that can be found on the internet. The "relief" look is based
on true elevation data you can find in a database called "Etopo5". It is of course drawn
exaggerated, and with a fixed sun position. Not even the Himalaya would give any impression
of height if seen from space, and if you light it from where the true sun is, you see a bump
instead of a mound (a psychological thing). The color of the sea indicates depth, which is
also based on this database.

The green vegetation is based on "advanced high resolution radar" satellite images that are
available at the USGS (US Geographical Survey), mediated over 4 months of the years 95 and
96.
So if you expected to see more jungle or something... this is truely what is left of it.
Sad.

The snow is totally bogus, thrown in because you would expect to see some snow & ice... based
on latitude and elevation. Everyone knows that the north pole is mostly ice covered, but in
WinGlobe you can see some water up there. I decided not to simply draw in an ice cap (haven't
been there anyway...)

About the rest:
===============
Latitude and longitude in WinGlobe is shown in human readable format (like 30░20'10" W,
10░20'30" S) but you can also enter decimal degrees like -30.34 -10.35.
Population counts are based on dated data, usually around 1996, but I have gone to some
lengths to supply new data for countries like the ones that dropped off the former Soviet
Union - also you will find updates on WinGlobe's homepage http://www.djuga.net/winglobe.html
Anyway consider these rough estimates.
The time and date in WinGlobe is shown in the format you chose in your Windows installation.
You can eg. change to 24hrs time in Windows and get 24hr time in WinGlobe as well.
Names are usually the English version, or the English spelling of the local version.
If you know a more accurate population count for a place, or find the name or country that is
given for a city to be grossly annoying (eg. I guess there's some "Lhasa, China"...),

mail Dirk at [e-mail]


Introducing the WinGlobe Web:
=============================
If you have access to the Internet you can click the big button with the plane on it to make
a virtual trip to the current city on the WWW. You can see what the weather is like, listen
to the local radio station or even watch local TV. You can mail me your favourite URL to
[e-mail]. You can also submit it online at http://www.djuga.net/winglobe/WGW/WGW_intro.html.


FAQ:

Q: How can I move WinGlobe on my desktop ?
A: Grab it in the center where the arrow-cross appears, hold the left mouse button and drag
   it.

Q: How can I change it's size ?
A: Grab it's edge and drag. Just like with a rectangular window.

Q: It looks too dark/light. Can I adjust it?
A: You can tweak it's appearance in Options/Appearance.

Q: I want a black night side!
A: In Options/Appearance check the "Twilight Zone" box. This will give you a black night and
   the sunset/dawn should resemble closely what you see if you look out of the window (if you
   have day & night checked)

Q: The time is all wrong! Can I adjust it?
A: Check if your time zone in Windows is set correctly for where you live. You get at the
   time zone settings by doubleclicking the clock in the task bar.

Q: It's STILL wrong!
A: For these hardboiled cases go to Options/Special. You can enter an offset that will be
   added to WinGlobe's time. You can enter negative hrs and fractions of an hr, like -10.5

Q: I think you should put WinGlobe in the notification tray, instead of the button on the
   taskbar.
A: The idea was this: You can launch several WinGlobes and dress them up like
   "New York - Rio - Tokyo". Then you can always see the different times by moving the mouse
   over the taskbar.
   But you can get rid of the button in the taskbar in Options/Special.
   If you're so inclined you can then make it really small and move it to the system tray,
   on top of another useless tray icon ;)

Q: Spinning the globe with the mouse is very slow!
A: You should uncheck the "Drag & Spin" box in Options->Special. Now you can spin the globe
   by point-and-click. Generally a smaller globe will redraw faster, it will also be faster
   if you don't show boundaries.

Q: I want WinGlobe to come up at the same place on my desktop / centered on Taka-Tuka
   always.
   It always comes up in the upper left corner centered on Germany ?
A: WinGlobe does store all it's current settings - size, position, location, options, when
   you exit it. If Windows is shut down before you exit WinGlobe, it doesn't get a chance
   to remember it's state. So just don't exit it before you shut down your PC.

Q: I can't use a mouse, I want to use my keyboard.
A: The following keyboard shortcuts are available:
   [Enter] Location box
   [ESC] Exit
   [Up, Down, Left, Right] Rotate
   [+/-] Zoom
   Standard Windows keys
   [Alt]+[Space] System menu (incl. keyboard Move and Size)


HISTORY:

Since release 2.0:

Now Win2000/XP compatible out of the box.
Better response when shrinking.
Weather changed to http, default proxy is used.
Hotkey for Location box (Enter)
Support for Wheel Mouse (zoom)
More weather stations.
Plane icon modernized :)
Database updated - fixed Korean Island glitch!
Keeps drag and rotate mode when maximized (prev. it was throttling down to click and rotate)
"Globe" menu restores to Globe when maximized (prev. it rather meant "not zoomed")
Auto Update via Internet (Options->Special, also settings under Weather)

Since release 1.2:

Added live weather
made the system menu available
made "Zoom in" possible
added more detailed boundaries
added "Favorites" menu
rotate in very small steps (enter "0")
made it resize more gracefully

Since release 1.1:

fixed the distance calculation
fixed the AM/PM designators with 12hrs time
added search lists for cities and countries
added drag & drop of the info in the Location dialog
added option to synchronize the system clock with a time server on the internet
added rotation ability
added drag & spin mode
added various configuration options
added tool tips
introduced the WGW
Various data updates

Since release 1.0:

added country and state boundaries
made "Distance" show the "from" location
made Latitude/Longitude show and accept coordinates in the form 1░2'3" W
made it behave somewhat more sensible when it is resized

Watch out for updates at http://www.djuga.net/winglobe.html