October 2005
- A Few More Blogs
- A few more mapping-related blogs to tell you about, with still more to come. Most mapping blogs approach it from the GIS pro’s perspective; First Printing’s perspective is also professional — but it’s from a company dealing in antique maps…
- Tinkering with the Site Design
- I had a bit of energy today, so I started making some minor changes to the site design, mostly with the aim of reducing clutter, adding some white space and just simplifying the design. At the moment it’s in medias…
- More Yahoo! Maps Mashups
- John Musser provides some examples of mashups using the Yahoo! Maps API from Yahoo!’s application gallery. Via All Points Blog. See previous entries: Yahoo! Maps API; Yahoo! Maps Hacks….
- Reviewing Online Map Services
- Ambitious: Cartography is reviewing seven online map services this week, and as of today is already up to four (Google, Map24, Maporama, Mapquest). Still to come (as of this writing): MSN, Rand McNally and Yahoo! I’ve linked to the introductory…
- Planet Geospatial
- Planet Geospatial, by Spatially Adjusted’s James Fee, aggregates GIS, mapping and related blogs (including this one) into a single page. It’s a fine idea, and I’m happy to be along for the ride. (Believe it or not, I thought about…
- BP, Russian Security and Large-Scale Maps
- More trouble in Russia over the possession of large-scale (i.e., 1:25,000) maps, this time involving oil company BP. Apparently foreigners — including foreign corporations doing business in Russia — aren’t allowed to have them. Via Cartography. See previous entry: Maps…
- Forbes Smiley Case: Another Roundup
- William Finnegan’s long article in the Oct. 17 issue of The New Yorker, which I mentioned in an earlier entry, wasn’t online, but it was very good — an excellent summary of what was known to date with some additional…
- Petrol Maps
- I like old road maps, and I’m apparently not alone. Ian Byrne’s Petrol Maps is one of several web sites dedicated to collecting and documenting old road maps; this one looks at maps of Europe issued by oil companies. Via…
- One of Our Maps Is Missing
- The legally binding 1978 map of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has gone missing, the New York Times reports (free registration required). The map, wall-sized and 1:250,000 scale, was last seen in 2002 and apparently disappeared some time in early…
- Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
- You know how I like election maps, so you probably won’t be surprised that I’ve been spending some time perusing Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, which has maps of election results going as far back as there have…
- OpenStreetMap London Poster as Fundraiser
- To raise funds, OpenStreetMap is selling a limited-edition poster. The approximately 84×119-cm poster, which displays all the GPS data the project has collected for the London area, sells for £10 plus postage and shipping tube. Via Boing Boing. See previous…
- Ralph Salomon Profiled, Opens Gallery
- Today’s Journal News runs a profile of map dealer Ralph Salomon, who, after five years of running his web-site- and trade-show-based business out of his home, is opening a by-appointment gallery in North Salem, New York on Saturday….
- The New York Times on Mashups
- Today’s New York Times has an article about mapping hacks and mashups (free registration required); it touches on the Google Maps API, naturally, but also mentions Yahoo!, Microsoft and the new Ning.com. Thanks to Joel Riggs for the link….
- Web Mapping and Usability
- Directions reprints an article from Position magazine about usability in web mapping that argues for attention to target audience and usability testing. Worth a look if you’re interested in the design of web mapping services….
- Tracking Hurricane Wilma
- Here we go again. Google Earth Blog has a collection of downloadable automated storm tracking tools (KMZ file). Google Maps Mania points to a couple of Google Maps based storm trackers. Spatially Adjusted links to ESRI’s existing hurricane viewer and…
- Collection Auctioned, Expected to Raise £5 Million
- A 700-volume, 60,000-map collection of atlases dating back to the 15th century is being auctioned by its late owner, the BBC reports, and is expected to fetch a total of £5 million. The collection was saved from a fire last…
- CommonCensus Map Project
- The CommonCensus Map Project uses people’s votes to determine U.S. cities’ spheres of influence. A neat concept. More than 13,000 votes have been received so far; they’ve plotted a map based on the first 8,000. They’re also working on sports…
- Lawrence’s Map of Arabia
- An exhibition at the Imperial War Museum on the life of T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) includes a recently discovered “peace map” that outlined Lawrence’s postwar proposals for the Middle East. The map had been misfiled in the National…
- USGS to Outsource Mapmaking?
- FCW.com: “The U.S. Geological Survey, which issues most official maps, is considering outsourcing or eliminating most of its major mapping technology operations because commercial remote-sensing products and other advanced technologies have replaced field surveyors.”…
- Virtual Earth Mobile
- Here’s another Virtual Earth port/hack to an unexpected but welcome place: Virtual Earth for Windows Mobile — i.e. Pocket PCs and Windows-based smartphones. Via the Virtual Earth team blog and Spatially Adjusted. See previous entry: A Microsoft Roundup….
- Decline of the Road Map
- This article, which appeared in Friday’s Vancouver Sun, offers a paean to old highways maps and bemoans — but does not provide concrete examples of — their modern-day equivalents: “[T]oday’s pale spectres provide us with little more than stock photographs,…
- Geocaching in Canada’s National Parks
- CBC News has a story about geocaching and Parks Canada, the federal government agency that runs our national parks: after banning physical geocaches earlier this year for fear of disturbing wildlife, Parks Canada is working with geocachers to develop a…
- Google and Its Mapping Data Providers
- It’s not necessarily common knowledge that Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft don’t produce the data for their maps; they buy it from other companies. But because they’re the front end, sometimes people make the assumption that it’s Google operatives running around…
- Apple C&D: New Name for iSubwayMaps
- A little while ago William Bright started a web site where you could download subway maps to your iPod, taking advantage of the photo-storage capabilities of iPods with colour screens (see previous entry). Then some metro transit authorities caught wind…
- PEI Wind Atlas
- Cute little Canadian province Prince Edward Island has released an online wind atlas, the CBC reports. The atlas, in PDF and ALOV-based interactive versions, maps potential wind energy — i.e., potential locations for wind turbines. See previous entry: Wind Energy…
- Pakistani Earthquake Satellite Imagery
- The always excellent Kathryn Cramer points to satellite imagery of the earthquake-stricken areas of Pakistan: one-metre-resolution photos from Space Imaging, an image from NASA’s Earth Observatory showing the quake epicentres and fault line, and a page of images from the…
- More Forbes Smiley Coverage
- The Daily Princetonian covers the Forbes Smiley case in like manner to the University of Chicago Maroon (see previous entry), by using the case to focus on concerns about rare-book and special-collection security in libraries. Meanwhile, through MapHist I learn…
- Now Just ‘Taiwan’
- Google has removed “Province of China” from its reference to Taiwan in Google Maps (see previous entry). From the San Jose Mercury News article: “[C]ompany officials said the controversial label simply repeated information from outside data sources used to build…
- Forbes Smiley Coverage: Chicago Maroon
- For the sake of completeness, here is a short article from the Chicago Maroon, the University of Chicago’s student newspaper, about this Forbes Smiley business (abundantly documented in the Map Thefts category archives); of interest is the description of the…
- Question: Software for Publishing a Map?
- If J. Little were just putting something on the web, I’d advise him/her to use Google Maps, but s/he’s looking for something s/he can publish: “If I wanted to make a map of the area surrounding Lake Michigan and add…
- Question: SVG Maps of Countries?
- Mike S. writes, “I have looked many places to find semi-detailed SVG maps of cities or countries. Does anyone know where they are sold or available? I am looking for Japan in particular, but others would be great to browse.”…
- Mapping the Pakistani Earthquake
- Speaking of Kathryn Cramer, she’s also put together a useful Google Maps mashup of earthquake data that allows us to see, quite precisely, where the quakes and aftershocks have hit in northern Pakistan. She notes: One interesting result I obtain…
- A Small Hurricane Update
- Kathryn Cramer reports that new Rita overlays for Google Earth based on updated NOAA imagery are now available. Meanwhile, Wired carries an AP story about mapping the storm surge from Katrina: surveyors are trying to create an atlas of the…
- A Microsoft Roundup
- In the past week or so, I’ve learned the following mapping news from Microsoft through map developer Chandu Thota’s blog: Overshadowed by the PDC stuff on Virtual Earth at the time, I guess, but version 4.0 of the MapPoint web…
- Forbes Smiley Case: Arader Says, ‘I Told You So’
- Controversial map dealer Graham Arader stirs the pot again in the New York Times (free registration required): “‘I’ve been telling everybody that Forbes is a crook for 20 years, and everybody says to me, “You just think the only good…
- Testing Driving Directions
- CNet’s Elinor Mills ran an experiment: test the accuracy of the four major web map services — Google Maps, MapQuest, MSN and Yahoo! Maps — by following their directions between two points, one after the other, and timing how long…
- Forbes Smiley Case: London Times Coverage
- Tomorrow’s edition of the London Times (or today’s, depending on where in the world you are at the moment), has an article on the Forbes Smiley case that adds some new information from the FBI. Despite Smiley’s plea of not…
- SlashGISRS
- SlashGISRS is a Slashdot-style community focusing on GIS and remote sensing. Looks very promising. (And it’s run by a Canadian non-profit organization: there are no limits to my country’s geographic conspiracy.)…
- Google Maps: No Longer Beta, No Longer Maps
- Google Maps Mania reports that Google Maps has dropped the “beta” moniker and is now branded as Google Local. There have been some layout changes to allow room for Local search results. Adding cartography to local search was, I think,…
- What’s MapQuest Up To?
- For a web service that’s been left out of the limelight by its upstart rivals for most of this year, MapQuest is suddenly generating some news interest: first by announcing a collaboration with GPS maker TomTom to produce a car-based…
- Seminar on Errors in Early Maps
- A seminar about errors in early maps takes place this Saturday in Annapolis, Maryland; topics for discussion include extra islands in John Smith’s maps of Chesapeake Bay (see previous entry) and maps showing California as an island….
- Taiwan, Province of China
- Taiwan has asked Google to stop labelling it as a “province of China” in Google Maps. BBC coverage (via Cartography). Google Maps Mania has an excellent post that includes links to other news sources. Google Earth Blog and Ogle Earth…
- Hurricane Katrina Diaspora Map
- The Hurricane Katrina diaspora map (details here) “was based on more than 40,000 postings on Internet ‘safe lists’ by Katrina survivors. ePodunk analyzed messages containing both the person’s hometown and the location after fleeing the storm.” Via Rebecca’s Pocket….
- Seven More Mapping Blogs
- More mapping, cartography and geospatial blogs to go up on the sidebar: Darren Cope’s Blog — Darren’s a recent geography grad from the University of Waterloo. (Oddly enough, Mike from Google Maps Mania is from Waterloo, and I did my…
- Book Review Policy
- A couple of authors have asked me whether I’d be interested in reviewing their books and where to send them. To aid future inquiries, I’ve now added information about book reviews to the About page: what I’m willing to look…
- Forbes Smiley Roundup
- The Yale Daily News covers Forbes Smiley’s pre-trial conference, which took place yesterday. The International Herald Tribune reprinted yesterday’s New York Times story (see previous entry), in case an alternate URL is needed. The Toronto Star also reprinted the story….
- Canadian Topo Map Update: Globe and Mail Coverage
- The Globe and Mail has picked up the story (free registration may be required) about the Canadian government’s decision to get out of the business of printing paper topo maps, and map seller Brad Green’s campaign to overturn that decision….
- New York Times Forbes Smiley Coverage (Updated)
- Forbes Smiley is scheduled to appear in court today; coincidentally, the New York Times covers the case in today’s edition (free registration required). The article, which sums up what is known to date, notes a couple of things I didn’t…
- SF Chronicle: Digital Map Field Researchers
- Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has a story about digital map data companies and their field researchers. I’ve mentioned stories about collecting data for map companies before (see previous entries: Online Maps’ Foot Soldiers; Backcountry Mapping). What’s different is the technology…
- PSP Subway Maps
- Subway maps aren’t just for iPods any more; Engadget points to subway maps for the Playstation Portable: a map of the New York subway (in defiance of licencing policies) and maps of other cities’ subway systems. I don’t recall this…
