As a mathematician he used Bayesian search theory, crunching multiple probabilities to produce contour maps and then to pinpoint a site to within a few hundred yards.
To reproduce Middle Earth's climate, Dr Dan Lunt, an expert on past climate change, traced one of Tolkein's famously detailed maps, and then effectively "scanned" that into the university's supercomputer.
Users will simply search for locations on Google Maps and then select a diver symbol, which will take viewers beneath the surface to 360 degree panoramic views of those locations.
Nor was there wide support for an administration bill that would change the system of recording sidewalk defects all over the city under which a group of lawyers makes squiggles on hundreds of maps and then files that information with the courts.
These usually involved him looking at maps and then traveling to an unexpected place out in the world and collecting materials -- often earth, rocks and sand, then bringing it all back for display in the gallery in containers along with an aerial map of the location.
It's a good idea to strike a balance between total freedom and a little forward planning for a road trip like this, says Jeremiah Mahadevan of Practical Motorhome magazine: "The whole point is to explore, but I normally plan a rough route using Google maps and then book the first two or three nights, or at least the first night".
"If you release a set of maps and then they propose a new one, and you say, 'Hey, but we already proposed a new one, and on every axis it's better' — then it's very hard to argue against it," he said.
Dave Johnston, 66, who lives off the grid in Talkeetna, Alaska, started pursuing highpoints in the 1960s, when many sites were still unmarked and a highpointer had to pore over topographical maps and then wander around the woods with a compass trying to figure out where the top of the hill was.
