NHL is back!!!! Players sign new CBA. Also - new NHL logo

Yipeee!!!! The players have ratified the new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement).

Latest word for the Ottawa Senators (my team) is that they are looking to sign Gary Roberts. Roberts has been a thorn in the Ottawa's side while he played for the Leafs.

The free agent field will be flush with talent and I am so anxious to see how the rest of the summer plays out.

TSN will carry the draft lottery tomorrow (July 22) live.

NHL Links of interest:
Eklund's Hockey Rumours (rumour is the key word... many are bogus)
TSN.ca's NHL coverage
NHL.com, the official site for the league
CTV Sportsnet Hockey page
Lookup salaries on the USAToday site

Google maps hacks - updated list

I have been enjoying Google Maps hacks since they started showing up a week or so after the service was offered.

Google Maps is a great tool. I encourage you to try it out. You can find the feature at http://maps.google.com

Instructions

• A good bit of info about hacking GoogleMaps can be found here on a site currently called A Huge Gray Area
• Another site with details you may need http://libgmail.sourceforge.net/googlemaps.html
• A wiki (I hate that word) for Google Maps hacking
  

I might sound like Google is actively shutting down hacks... But in late June 2005, both Google and Yahoo released APIs for their mapping software. See this story for details.

The List of Google Maps Hacks
Okay... So here's a list of Google hacks that I know of. Please post a comment to announce your own hack to to tell people about a hack that isn't listed here.

• Chicago crime maps. Oh my goodness... That place isn't safe. Try searching by crime type, homocide, in the past 10 days.
• Along the same lines as above... But updated on the fly. Incidentlog.com
• Still in the crime category... floridasexualpredator.com shows locations (residence) of each registered sex offender in the state. Click on the bubble to see their rap-sheet.
• Not very useful... But whatever. Cheap Movies in a limited number of cities.
  
• These days everyone wants cheap gas. This site has some bugs (the pricing for Canadian gas is off by a factor of 100), but it is still very useful. Cheap gas.
• Weather using Google Maps. This site draws from a variety of sources and offers links to web-cams. Doesn't seem to offer any forecasts.. by current observations are there. http://www.weatherstationmaps.info/
• MyGMaps - a cool tool for making your own custom GoogleMaps data files. From the same guy who offers the guide linked above (sourceforge)
  
• Weeee! This one is fun. Google Maps Transparencies.
• I like this one. Foundcity lets you document your neighbourhood and city. Take pictures, add comments. Nice.
• Hate searching for tourist attractions to get a bird's eye view from Google Maps? Google sightseeing has done it for you.
• This is an eye opener. casualty-maps.com plots the home towns of US casualties from the war in Iraq. Would be interesting to see a similar site that plots civilian casualties.
• Another winner. Double click on this Google map application to set waypoints.. calculate your distance for jogging or whatever. It's called the Gmap Pedometer
• Live GPS powered Google Maps for your Nokia phone... Pretty cool.
• Find someone to hook-up with (that's the latest lingo) using 4ppl's locate tool.
• Very useful and also good because it shows you how it is constructing the queries on the fly. Google+Yahoo powered traffic maps. US only.
• California home sale prices. Good if you live in CA... Otherwise - just interesting.
• Ummmmm.. Dunno about this one. Some sort of pictures. Goolickr Maps
  
• Wow... This guy has Google Maps Hacks well documented. http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/