Google Apps Hacks

300 GOOGLE APPS HACKS

HaCK 122:

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We know the sky is blue, but it’s not always supposed to be that blue.

If you create screenshots based on Google Earth views, like the one showing New York in Figure 11-

25, you will notice something is awkwardly absent: clouds. Granted, most of us prefer a clear sky to

a cloudy one, but a couple of clouds might give the resulting view a more realistic touch.

Here’s how to add a sky to Google Earth. Provided that Google Earth is already installed on your

system, start out by entering the following in your browser’s address bar:

http://barnabu.co.uk/files/skydome/skydome-nl.kml

When you are asked whether to open this in Google Earth or download it, choose to open in it

Google Earth (or, depending on your browser, you may also rst need to download it and then open

the download).

Once Google Earth is launched and the KML (Keyhole Markup Language) le has nished loading,

you will notice a new list entry reading “Skydome” in the Places pane to the left. Check the entry and

all of its list children. This will trigger another download, which might take a few seconds.

What is Google Earth loading here? To explain, the skydome is actually a textured 3D model created

in Google SketchUp, as shown in Figure 11-26. It’s designed by James Stafford, who publishes

many more interesting Google Earth models and hacks at his blog, http://barnabu. ...