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Thought I'd share: I got all of Africa! Again!

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 2:00 pm
by DerGolgo
Just thought I'd share.
My favorite, that is default, browser has been Opera for about a decade now (dang, that long?!?!).
Years ago they introduced what's basically like mozilla plugins or browser extension, little programs that run on the browser's stuff but on your computer, so work offline, any may not be internet related at all.
To try out what the widgets do, one of the first I installed was "eduMap", where it names a country and you have to click on it on an unadorned map. Or if shows you the place and you have to name it, your choice.
I tried it out and it was fun to use. It was also shocking how bad I was at accurately placing most of the world on a map. Yes, I know that Rwanda is in the middle of Africa somewhere, Paraguay is landlocked in South America, but while getting confused over central-Asia's -stans or the Pacific's largely landless nations I could forgive myself, the deficits I discovered here could not.
I managed 100% correct answers for the whole world, eventually, and dug it back up the other day. Took me a few idle hours with a movie running in the background, but now all but the Pacific is back up there, just re-checked that my 100% for Africa wasn't a fluke (where's Togo? Hm? Or Zambia? I know, ha.). The pacific, with it's great lack of easily recognized landmasses, where most countries are a squarish bit of ocean with a few dry spots in between, which often are too small for the map, is a bit boring, but I'll get that, too.

So I'd just like to recommend trying it. It is fun, it is surprisingly challenging and it's a nice feeling of achievement when you get the success message.
Unfortunately, as has been with all works of maps I can remember, it's quickly outdated, the South Sudan is missing for example. Heck, the atlas we used to keep next to the tv to look up where news-events happened still had Rhodesia in it, the school atlas I used till graduation prominently featured the soviet union, so that's forgivable I guess.
Will keep looking for an update, though.

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:36 pm
by smalltownsarah
Wow, that sounds highly helpful for a person like me, who cannot even place precisely where all of the United States are... but alas, I am a Google Chrome user.

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:37 am
by DerGolgo
You aren't limited to continents and countries, the USA with all it's states is in eduMap, too. Good reminder, I should look back in there, had them all, once, but no more.

Don't be tempted to try out Opera, though. It has so many lovely features which are so easy to access, you'll just find Chrome to be insufficient (I have Chrome as my backup browser for websites coded in the browser-war days when MS flatly tried to sabotage Opera, so I have compared the two).

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:24 pm
by smalltownsarah
Image

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 2:05 pm
by DerGolgo
Exactly. While everyone else has to screw with one another, Opera stands aside, sits back comfortably and watches, bemused at their silly antics.

Opera was way ahead with many features other browsers only got later (like tabbed browsing, mouse gestures) and they are still improving and adding stuff. For free. Not even google watching your surfing habits or shit like that to fear. And if you don't want some sysop to know you use opera, you just set it to tell his server that it's something else. Adding all in, Chrome is positively bare-boned in comparison. Maybe I haven't found all the equivalent features in Chrome, but that's nice about Opera, too. All the stuff is right there, easy to find. Like Unite. A fun little feature that turns my computer into a webserver for whatever I may need one in a hurry.