Inaccuracies in Google Maps Australia
I was driving with Michelle over to a housewarming party of sorts when, following the directions provided by Google Maps (from my desktop), I ran into a dead-end. While we resolved this moments later by doing our own re-routing, I later on decided to test the Nav4All GPS/navigational program that I had installed earlier on my BlackBerry and to my surprise it correctly showed the dead-end!
When I checked again with Google Maps I noticed that when trying to go into Street View mode it does recognize that Niara Rd is a dead-end and does not continue onto Aitchandar Rd as you can see from the blue outline below:
Dead-end on Niara Rd
However, when I got Google to create a simple navigational instruction from one side to the other it again gave directions to drive onto Niara Rd and continuing onto Aitchandar Rd. Turning on Street View turns it into a rather comical directional aid (click for larger image), one that made me think there’s a Hibiki Ryouga working at Google Maps Australia:
Straight through the front yard!
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened and frankly I’m quite annoyed. I used to use MS Streets’n Trips while in the US and given that it was “offline” you’d think there would be more inaccuracies with that program. Nope! So you’d think an online program with Street View, satellite view and all would be a lot more accurate. Not sure what’s going on with Google Maps Australia but I do hope they fix this crap soon.
First harvest and more!
Last week we had our first harvest and enjoyed a simple salad of lettuce, feta cheese marinated in olive oil and said olive oil.
Home-grown lettuce, feta cheese marinated in olive oil
That was last week. And as is obvious, our lettuces are doing quite well:
Lettuce
and more letuce
As usual, the mint, parsley, etc. aren’t doing so hot. I’m seriously ready to give-up on them (if I haven’t already):
Not so good looking plants
The tomatoes and basil plants in the fourth pot, however, are doing quite decently. The tomato plant leaves aren’t looking so hot but we do have tomatoes growing! The basil, on the other hand, is flowering, which meant we started nipping them so as to keep it growing longer. (Yes, I screwed-up the depth of field in some of the shots. Oh well.)
Tomatoes, basil, oh my!
Growing tomatoes
Big boy
Teeny tiny tomatoes
Basil flowers
So far, not sure quite what to make of all of this. We definitely still have a bug problem but the plants seem to be stronger and more resistant to them. Maybe the sprinkling of pepper and the chili spray worked? Maybe it’s just the liquid fertilizer in the water every week or two? Or maybe it’s the cute lady bug that I saw for the first time on one of our lettuce plants tonight? (I read that lady bugs are good against these infestations.)
Either way, it’s a good learning experience for both of us and when things go well, a pretty tasty experience as well!
