Are you good at Google Earth-based puzzles?

treasure-hunt.jpgThis fall, a new scavenger hunt using Google Earth will be launched, with a prize valued at €50,000 (over $70,000)! Thanks to GEB reader ‘Will from the UK’ for letting us know about it.

The contest will work similarly to classic puzzle book “Masquerade” in the early 1980’s, which sent people hunting for (and eventually finding) a valuable prize.

According to the Telegraph, the book “will provide a series of drawings that include visual and textual puzzles described by publisher Carlton Books as ‘ferociously complicated’.”

The contest begins on September 1 and will end in March. All users that find the answer will be entered into a drawing for the the €50,000 prize.

We’ll keep you posted on the release of the book as it gets closer. It might be a fun way to spend some time playing around in Google Earth!

Frank on Sparks and Possibility

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

–Anne Frank (1929–1945)
Dutch diarist

“Work is born in us. We take to it kindly or unkindly. The terms may be easy or harsh, but the contract is binding.”

Studs Terkel (1912–2008)
American writer, journalist, broadcaster
Pulitzer Prize winner

Everything begins with our attitude toward our work – to how we contribute. We should be sure to guard and nurture that attitude.

Terkel’s bestselling book Working was published 37 years ago as an oral history of “people talking about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do”.

Google SketchUp 8 For Dummies

When I first downloaded SketchUp years ago, I thought I was the coolest guy on the block because I could push/pull a square into a cube. Then I went online and saw what some other folks were modeling and realized I needed to up my game FAST. So like many folks, I turned to (my now colleague) Aidan Chopra’s Google SketchUp For Dummies book.

I learned a lot from this Dummies book, so I’m especially proud to be able to announce that the newest edition of Google SketchUp For Dummies is on bookshelves now. This new edition is fully revised and updated to cover all the tastiness we packed into SketchUp 8—both free and Pro. You can find the book online and at bricks-and-mortar bookstores.

If you’re new to SketchUp, the book is a great primer. It will teach you how to (among other things):

  • Navigate SketchUp’s user interface.
  • Build a model from scratch.
  • Create and use components.
  • View and present your models.
  • Use LayOut to create documents and presentations.

A detailed table of contents is available for download from the publisher’s website. If you’re a grizzled SU veteran or already own an older version of this book, I’d still recommend checking out the newest edition. It contains several new sections about:

  • Adding additional floor levels to your models
  • Working with solids and the Solid Tools
  • Using the revised Match Photo toolset
  • Geo-modeling with SketchUp 8 and Building Maker
  • Presenting your designs with LayOut in SketchUp Pro
  • Finding and making use of Ruby scripts

There are also two additional chapters available for free download on the website, and the book’s accompanying YouTube channel has 62 supplemental videos that walk through the many techniques and examples presented in the book.

I like to tease Aidan and say that I only read half of his book. What I don’t tell him is I read the first few chapters straight through to get me up and running, but I refer to the advanced chapters often to brush up my modeling skills! In other words, this is a great resource no matter what your level of SketchUp expertise.