Happy New Year everyone. 

If you don't use Google Earth, you may wish to pretty much ignore the
rest of this message; on the other hand, you may wish to start using
it. Google Earth is a really fun (proprietary closed-source)
application that uses the same satellite image data that is now
available via Mapquest, Google Maps, etc. on the web, but gives you a
*much* better interface. It runs on Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and even
Windows, and is available at http://earth.google.com/; there are both
free and payware versions -- I have only used the free version. Note
that there probably isn't much point in playing with it unless you
have a high-speed internet connection.

One feature of Google Earth is that it permits you to record a
"placemark", which boils down to a particular latitude & longitude
along with some other information (like a description you write, what
angle & altitude to view it from, etc.). You can collect placemarks
and organize them into folders.

This information is stored in an XML file that uses a language that
Google calls KML. I have not been able to find a schema for KML
anywhere. If anyone can find it, please let me know.

In any case, I have created a placemark file of all the places where
the TEI-C has held
* Members' Meetings
* meetings of the Board of Directors
* meetings of the Council, and
* TEI Day events
It is available to you at
http://bauman.zapto.org/~syd/places/TEI-C.kml. You can use it in one
of two ways:

* directly via network:
  - from the 'Add' menu, choose 'Network Link...'
  - in the 'Name' field enter a name of some sort, e.g. "My crazy
    brother's family file"
  - in the 'Link' field enter the URL
    http://bauman.zapto.org/~syd/places/TEI-C.kml
  - enter a description, if you like
  - click 'OK', and a new 'network link' folder will be added to your
    places (it will be added to the currently selected set, usually
    'My Places'); it will have the name & description you entered,
    and will contain one folder "TEI-C", which itself contains a
    bunch of placemarks of interest

* using the file:
  - download the file http://bauman.zapto.org/~syd/places/TEI-C.kml
    to your hard drive
  - open it from within Google Earth (or, at least on a Mac,
    double-click it)
  - the file 'TEI-C.kml' will be added to your 'Temporary Places'; it
    will contain one folder "TEI-C", which itself contains a bunch of
    placemarks of interest

Click on a placemark in the left to select it, double-click to go
there. With a placemark selected choose 'Get Info' from the 'Edit'
menu (cmd-I on a Mac) to see information about it, including my
description.

Let me know if I have any details wrong -- e.g., if someone could
provide the exact location of the Charles University Lounge, or the
building in which the 2003 Board of Directors meetings was held, that
would be great. 


Enjoy! I hope everyone has a great 2007.