This has never happened to me before. I found a cool site (via Make)that would automatically stitch together google maps for wallpapers and whatnot, and I punched in a few things, like “detroit, mi” and then my home address, and while doing the latter, the site went down and was replaced by a C&D order by google, claiming that the site ” encourages non-personal use of Google Maps”. I had punched up two maps before this happened. What really sucks is that there was an executable one could use but I failed to download it.
In the comments at the Make site, someone recommended Worldwind by NASA, which I am now downloading. More on that later.