Bhuvan, a satellite mapping tool similar to Google Earth, was launched last week by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It's launch is ironic, given that the both the central and state governments in India have raised concerns about the amount of detail available. Will Maharshtra's Home Ministry also ask for Bhuvan to be censored? Political concerns aside, we really didn't want to write about Bhuvan without trying it out first (remember the $10 laptop?). Our short, politically-correct verdict is that "it's a start", and it's definitely not a myth. Bhuvan details: Registration | Plugin Download (11.3MB, EXE) The non-politically correct verdict is a lot harsher, particularly given how difficult it was to review this product: Installation & Registration Issues Maybe it was of the publicity that Bhuvan received last week, but over the last couple of days, it was next to impossible for us to get Bhuvan up and running: Two attempts at registration failed, and of the three that succeeded, Bhuvan would not accept the chosen password in two cases. There's no option for password recovery either. Furthermore, five of seven attempts at downloading the 11.3 MB browser plugin failed; both from Preethi and I tried. In the two cases it succeeded, it was only because I stopped and resumed the transfers using a download manager. Download speeds averaged around 6kBps, on a connection that allows around 52kBps. While Bhuvan supports only IE6 and Windows, the installation automatically runs the default browser. There were issues with the installation as…
