Christchurch earthquake: buildings set for demolition, partial demolition or make safe

The Canterbury Earthquake website publishes details about buildings set for demolition, partial demolition or make safe. I've taken their data and turned it into a map giving geographical reference to the destruction that has hit the city of Christchurch.

The data here is from the 27 April 2011 update, showing 362 buildings set for demolish, partial demolish or make safe. See the official list for a complete listing by heritage type.

View:

• View fullscreen map with Google Fusion Tables.
• Download KML (Google Earth)

The process of identifying buildings is ongoing and I'll try to keep this map updated. If you notice it's gotten out of date then leave a comment as a reminder for me. With the updates, links to old maps may stop working, so come back here for the latest.

Setting up Darkstone on Windows 7 x64

Darkstone is an Action RPG released in 1999 that I still play from time to time. The Darkstone installer fails on newer versions of Windows with the error Cannot launch install. Thankfully this is only a problem with the installer and the game works fine when manually installed. Here are the instructions for installing Darkstone on Windows 7 x64.

In the following instructions the drive for the CD is D. If your drive is a different letter, please use that instead.

1. Create the folder
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Delphine Software\Darkstone\
2. Copy everything from
   D:\Data\
   into
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Delphine Software\Darkstone\
3. Copy
   D:\music.MTF
   into
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Delphine Software\Darkstone\
4. Copy
   D:\voices1.MTF
   into
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Delphine Software\Darkstone\
5. Copy everything from
   D:\mdata\
   into
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Delphine Software\Darkstone\mdata\
6. Go back to
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Delphine Software\Darkstone\
   and right click on Darkstone.exe and click Properties. On the Compatibility tab check the box next to "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select "Windows 98 / Windows Me" from the dropdown.
7. In RegEdit create the following key chain
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Wow6432Node\ DelphineSoft\ Darkstone\ CurrentVersion\ Darkstone
   and make sure you're in that key before creating the following values.
8. Create a string value of DataPath and set the value to
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Delphine Software\Darkstone\
9. Create a string value of Language and set the value to
   ENGLISH
10. Create a string value of SavingPath and set the value to
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Delphine Software\Darkstone\

This should get Darkstone up and running and allow you update with all the patches.

There are some minor glitches, like parts of speech being skipped very occasionally, but I can't be sure those weren't bugs back in 1999. My original post covering installing Darkstone on Windows XP x64 has comments from readers about Windows Vista and networking issues, which I haven't tested. The instructions above are the only ones that I can vouch for.

Folder structure

Compatibility tab

Registry entries

A map of Belsize Walk

Belsize Walk links Primrose Hill and Parliament Hill with an architectural walk passing through the Belsize conservation area. Belsize House, which stood near Belsize Village until the 1850s, gives the whole area its name. The route provides a tour through two centuries of London's architectural history. A number of well-known figures appear along the way, ranging from Karl Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels to Bloomsbury author Lytton Strachey. The Belsize Walk takes around two and a half hours, and discreet footway discs have been provided to mark the route.

View:

• View fullscreen on Google Maps.
• Download KML (Google Earth)

Additional resources by other people:

• Camden City Council website.
• PDF with details of the walk.

Rugby World Cup 2011 Match Schedule Calendar

The kick-off times for the Rugby World Cup 2011, to be hosted in New Zealand, have been announced.
There are 48 matches happening between Friday 9 September and Sunday 23 October 2011. To keep track of the games and see which teams are playing on which days and times; I have created the Rugby World Cup 2011 Match Schedule calendar.

View:

• as a web page
• import ics into iCal, Google Calendar or other calendar
• as xml

Top Gear Test Track - Dunsfold

The Top Gear test track is used by the BBC automotive television programme Top Gear. It is located at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, United Kingdom. The track was designed by Lotus Cars. It is used to test both cars and drivers seen on the programme in three segments of the show - Power Laps, Star in a Reasonably Priced Car and Challenges.

View:

• View fullscreen on Google Maps
• Download KML (Google Earth)

I made this map in the middle of last year, but never promoted it. It's since had a good number of views and ranks very high in maps search results, but not in the main Google search. I'm hoping a bit of promotion here will change that.

A map of the The London Wall Walk

The London Wall walk is a walk established by the Museum of London in 1984. The walk consists of 21 marker panels which not only provide a bit of history, but also the location of the next panel. However, the majority of panels are missing, so I've created this map to show the full path for the walk. Panels that still exist are marked in blue, those that are missing are marked in purple.

View:

• View fullscreen on Google Maps.
• Download KML (Google Earth)

Additional resources by other people:

• Information from the panels and the original booklet can be found on the Museum of London website.
• A video guide to the walk
• Photos of the walk
• Text based directions for the walk

Photo Day - 85 - Waterloo Green

This photo was taken in Waterloo Green, a small park near London Waterloo station.

Visible in this photo are London Waterloo station, the London Eye, and Shell Centre.

View this photo's location on a map
View this photo at full size