Small Streams

A Delaying Tactic

I'm not ready to take the next step in spreadsheet to xml conversion. I'd also really like to explain xml and the benefits of using it with the Google Maps API.

But first a word on scale. Rich Gibson and Schuyler Erle describe scaling factors in their book Google Maps Hacks. But their purpose in the hack is to find out how much information is stored on Google servers.

I'd like to just get a rough estimate of what's going on. Google has 15 zoom levels from 0, the smallest scale, to 14, the largest scale. At zero you can view North America in a 600 x 800 pixel map, and one inch equals 1,000 miles. At zoom level 14 you can view four city blocks, and one inch equals 200 feet.

According to Wikipedia, 1:24,000 makes a good ratio for a hiking map and 1:250,000 makes for a good motorist map.

It's hard to write about scale without mentioning Charles and Ray Eames' Powers of 10.

Tags: googlemaps maps Maphound scale

Farmers' Markets Map

I want to jump ahead a couple of steps and show the map I made, because today is May 15th, and the City of Pittsburgh Farmers' Markets are opening.

Tags: googlemaps maps Maphound Pittsburgh

Making Maps: Getting Locations

I'm trying to find an elementary way to make on-line maps. Using Google Maps is probably one of the easiest ways. They have an application program interface (API) that uses your coordinates and other info and places them on the map. Everything's fairly simple, though you do have to muck about with some code.

There are other ways, simpler ways, but for me the Google Maps API is fast and flexible.

My first step is to find some useful data. One thing I'd like to know is where to find fresh produce. This Monday, the City of Pittsburgh Farmers' Markets will open. The City of Pittsburgh web site has the addresses, but to make a Google Map, I need to have latitude and longitude coordinates to place the info on the maps. I don't have a GPS device, but I can look up the geocodes (latitude and longitude) with this handy dingus.

Using their Excel template, I plug in my info, like so . . .

One click later, I have all my geocodes. A little cleaning up, and I have the data ready for my next step.

Googlemaps Maps Maphound

Feelings

Whatever happened to curb-feelers, those antenna like deelies that stuck out from car wheels. Originating in lowrider culture, curb feelers went fairly mainstream during the '80s. They signaled the driver when he or she was too close to the curb. I don't see them any more and wonder if people just run over the curb to find how close they are like I do. By the looks of my right front tire, it shows.

What about the curbs? Don't curbs have feelings, too.

The Diffusion of Walmart

Walmart

Technorati Tags

I'm going to start tagging my entries. According to Learning Movable Type, I have to write something like this: "begin tag" a href="http://technorati.com/tag/movable+type" rel="tag">Movable Type "end tag". This is automated with other blogware and newer versions of MT, but for now hand-coding is easier than upgrading.

tags smallstreams

Goin' to Pop City

Jennifer Barron just had her article on Pittsburgh blogging published in the webzine Pop City, complete with a picture of Liz and her blog.

Geography of Time

*
I borrowed A Geography of Time from my mother-in-law, after we had begun talking about sundials and the concept of time. Reading the book was a little slow going, a little academic, at first. The author, Robert Levine, doggedly and interestingly, sticks close to his basic thesis: every culture keeps time differently and that we can learn through examining the differences.

The main difference in cultures is that some of us live on clock-time, some form of standardized time, and some of us live on event time, usually people in pre-industrialized countries, where interpersonal relationships take precedence over schedules.

The book is at its best when the author talks about making the transition between the two times. In one instance he talks about a colleague commuting between the U.S. and Mexico.

He talks about how each time he crossed the border it felt like a button was pushed inside him. When entering the United States, he would feel his whole being switched to clock-time mode: he would walk faster, drive faster, talk faster, meet deadlines. When returning home, his body would relax and slow into event time the moment he saw the Mexican border agent. "There is a large group of people like me who move back and forth between the times," Lopez observes. Many, he believes, insist on keeping their homes on the Mexican side precisely because of its slower pace of life. "In Mexico, we are inside the time. We don't control time. We live with the time.

*Please note that I'm experimenting with an Amazon Associates link. You can click on the link to buy the book, or just find a generous family member like my own.