June 2007
- Magrathea: Mac Geotagging Software
- Another Mac geotagging application to add to an already surprisingly large pile: Magrathea. Free (donationware), integrates with iLife and Flickr. Via Geotagging Flickr. Previously: More Mac Geotagging Utilities; Geophoto: Mac Geotagging Software; GPS, Geotagging Automator Actions for the Mac;…
- Wired’s July Issue: Google Maps and the Hyperlocal Future
- Google Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World, from Wired’s July issue, is a far-reaching state-of-the-topic article that looks at Google’s mapmaking ventures and the tremendous amount of amateur mapmaking it’s stimulated. Covers all the bases. Noteworthy: “Today,…
- Google Maps: Draggable Driving Directions
- The driving directions feature on Google Maps has just received a major upgrade. Multiple stops and traffic conditions have (apparently) been added, but the big one is that you can now change the route you’re given to your destination…
- Social Network Dominance Map
- Valleywag has put together a map that shows which social networking site — Friendster, MySpace et al. — is the most popular in a given country. That Facebook dominates in Canada and Orkut in Brazil is a no-brainer, but…
- HoudahGPS
- HoudahGPS is an OS X front-end graphical interface for the open-source GPSBabel utility. It allows you to download data from a GPS receiver to a Mac. Unlike Houdah’s geotagging software, this application is free of charge. Via Ogle Earth….
- Mapping 2007
- Mapping 2007, the British Cartographic Society’s annual symposium, takes place at the University of Chester this September. The agenda includes a one-day cartography workshop for beginners as part of the Society’s Better Mapping campaign (see previous entry). Press release….
- Picasa Adds Geotagging
- Picasa Web Albums, Google’s photo sharing site, now has geotagging: photos can be placed on a map; visitors can view an album’s photos on a map or from within Google Earth. It’s more limited than what you can do with…
- Miami Herald NAVTEQ Profile
- It’s been a while since I’ve seen a newspaper article profiling one or the other mapping data company — i.e., NAVTEQ and/or Tele Atlas — with a focus on its local surveying efforts, but here’s a new one from the…
- Google Street View Privacy Roundup
- A roundup of links about Google Street View and its privacy implications (mostly) that have been accumulating in my queue for the past few weeks. Slate: Google Spies on America. This Denver Post editorial also raises some concerns about “personal…
- Giant Lego Map of the U.S.
- Boing Boing reports that, at the World Children’s Festival in Washington, DC this past weekend, Lego set up a “building event” in which kids contributed to a giant Lego mosaic map of the United States. (Thumbnail at right; see…
- More GPS Confusion
- Rich Owings takes apart an ABC News article that appears to conflate GPS receivers and personal locator beacons. “So let me make this clear,” Rich writes. “A GPS is not a personal locator beacon. A GPS receiver, by itself, will…
- Map Blog Update
- Leszek reports that his Free GeoTools blog is moving to a new URL — freegeographytools.com — and a new name: Free Geography Tools. Via Catholicgauze, the Infonaut Blog, from a company that does map-based medical IT stuff. Given all that…
- Readiness and Relief Maps
- I encountered a couple of cases of map-related double entendres recently (not at all salacious) that puzzled me for a while. Earlier this month, Mitch wrote in with a question: I have a United States map like the ones that…
- Mapping Urban Growth
- From an in-depth report on the global urban population explosion, the BBC has an interactive map showing the growth in urban population from 1955 to 2015; cities with more than five million inhabitants are also shown. Quite interesting that…
- Subglacial Lakes and Rivers in Antarctica
- A recent National Science Foundation report discusses what should be done to explore and preserve a system of lakes and rivers beneath the Antarctic ice cap; of interest to us is this map of that system. Ice-penetrating radar and…
- Gerrymandering as Computer Game
- The Redistricting Game is a surprisingly addictive Flash-based, online game that illustrates the state of electoral redistricting in the United States. It is, in a nutshell, gerrymandering as computer game: your missions include stacking the deck on behalf of your…
- Peters vs. Fuller
- In a November 2005 article for The American Surveyor, Angus Stocking considers — and compares — two “alternative” map projections: the Gall-Peters projection, proselytized by Arno Peters, and the icosahedral Dymaxion projection by Buckminster Fuller. To put it mildly, he…
- Why Do People Follow Bad Directions?
- Nicholas Forbes writes with an interesting question about why people follow bad directions — covered here ad nauseaum — that is above my pay grade: I am a Ph.D. student at the University of Nottingham UK. I have been running…
- Windows Virtual Globes on the Mac
- Virtual globe applications are, with the exception of Google Earth, Windows-only, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them on a Mac. Back in the PowerPC Mac days we had Virtual PC, which ran Windows inside an emulation window: there…
- Three More Blogs
- Update your RSS readers — here are three more blogs for you: Le blogue du LFG by Henri Willox; in French; an interest in Google mapping stuff. Digital Earth Blog by Mickey Mellen; foci include Google Earth and Maps, Virtual…
- Flickr Feeds
- I use Flickr to post my photos online, and I’m interested in geotagging my photos, so when Flickr made available some additional geotagged feed options, I paid attention. Beta support for GeoRSS feeds for people and tags, with group GeoRSS…
- Global Warming Mug
- Meanwhile, how about a a mug with a map of the world on which the coastlines disappear, mimicking the projected effects of global warming, when you add a hot drink to it. Via All Points Blog….
- Rubik’s Cube Earth
- I was a kid when the Rubik’s Cube craze hit; I could never solve more than one side (my aptitudes clearly lay elsewhere). I doubt, however, that this Japanese version with a world map on it will be any…
- Censoring Satellite Imagery at the Source
- Even though the new street-level imagery from Google is getting all the attention lately, the issue of censoring satellite and aerial imagery has not gone away. Not by a long shot. Via Ogle Earth: Henri Willox noted yesterday that French…
- Google Maps Street View: Moral Panic Update
- Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin asks, “Would we feel differently about street-level image mapping if it were done by a government agency? … Cameras aren’t new, maps aren’t new, the internet isn’t new, nor is Google or Microsoft. So why does…
- Google Earth Imagery and Terrain Update
- A big update to Google Earth’s imagery and terrain layers on Saturday that includes Canadian, German and French cities, U.S. counties, Japanese cities/regions, 50-cm-resolution imagery for England, 60-cm imagery for many areas including Antarctica and Greenland, and 10-metre terrain for…
- NY Times on Street View and Privacy
- The story of the privacy implications of Google’s Street View (see previous entry) has now been picked up by the New York Times. Meanwhile, scouring Street View for interesting or amusing images is turning into another pastime, as it was…
