Google Earth Sick Beta

The old apple tree
Image by fred1st via Flickr

Good news! Google Earth 6 has some really cool street level graphics. And it is available for the Mac! It even has 3D trees, so I assume that those cameras on moving cars that made the street views were minaturized and put into little helmets for a fleet of Google-trained squirrels. What will they think of next?

Bad news: since installing Google Earth 6 beta last night, my 23″ display is trying to show me a 26″ desktop. If I move the cursor left, the screen moves right. If I move the cursor up, the screen moves down. The new “feature” is making me seasick. I can see either the menu bar up top OR the dock along the bottom, but not both at the same time.

Good news: I still have one month left on my three year Mac Pro service contract (and this is the first time in all those months I’ve had a problem that required using it.)

More good News: I found the Apple Care policy number and the tech support phone number. The support center opens at 6.

Bad news: that’s 6 Pacific time. For more hours of this maddening fun-house distortion!

Good News: if I log in under a different profile, the display is okay, so it’s not a graphics card issue. But changing display dimensions in the fubared profile does nothing to fix the cursor-display motion issues.

Bad news: nothing on the Google Earth support site shows a problem like mine, though there are scores of graphics display issues with various cards on the Mac.

Good news: there is more coffee.

Bad news: I’ve already had too much coffee.

UPDATE: Good News: after holding a total of about an hour (first call dropped after 20 minutes) my Apple Care came to rescue: user error. “What kind of mouse do you have” the second support person asked me 15 seconds into the discussion. I told him. (Logitech MX Revolution.) One scroll of the wheel with Option key held down fixed the screen resolution problem. Oy. Live and learn.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Share this with your friends!
fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

Articles: 3007

One comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Oy, indeed. My Jewish husband and I are amused at the oys trickling in to your language. Next it will be “oy vey,” I bet!

Related Posts