Atlantic Yards protesters, some top tens of 2009 & Mapping New York

Not far from my neck-of-the-woods, some Atlantic Yards resistance took a practice run at what could be the most easy form of protest - handcuffing oneself to a bar. When the wrecking-balls come in they'll do it for real protesters say.

Here's the link to what wikipedia describes the Atlantic Yards project as.

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Google Earth Blog's top 10 GE stories of 2009

Vector 1's top ten GIS of 2009

From Map Room: The Electoral Map reviews Mapping New York, a new book that looks at the cartographic history of New York City: “I expected a glossy table book, but what I got was a richly illustrated history of New York City with over 200 maps of its people, its landscape, its culture, its demographics, its neighborhoods, and of course its infrastructure.”

The Google Maps Data API and Google Fusion API News & Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server

James Fee explains.

I just purchased my refurbished Snow Leopard Server Mac Mini and it should arrive in a week. I plan to use the Wiki Server 2 for work as our manager has been requesting a project wiki for quite some time and since our IT standards are such that we cannot install a wiki server I will host it on my new Mac Mini Server. After that, I'd really like to develop some web mapping apps and serve them from the server. The first barrier, however, is that I've used my neighbor's wireless signal since I moved in a month ago so I'll have to sign up for some internet service as to not destroy their bandwith.

Cyclists repaint bike lanes on Bedford Ave, MTA broke, empty BK buildings & best 2009 debut music albums

Cyclists repaint bike lanes that were recently removed from Bedford Avenue. See the video and other info at Gothamist.

MTA is broke, again, as always and service is terrible.

Ghost-town buildings in Brooklyn.

And best debut albums in 2009 from Pop Matters.

New USGS Digital Topo's

Check out the latest USGS Digital Topo's

US Topo is the next generation of digital topographic maps from the U.S. Geological Survey. Arranged in the traditional 7.5-minute quadrangle format, digital US Topo maps are designed to look and feel like the traditional paper topographic maps for which the USGS is so well known. At the same time, US Topo maps provide modern technical advantages that support wider and faster public distribution and enable basic, on-screen geographic analysis for all users.

US Topo maps are available free on the Web. Each map quadrangle is constructed in GeoPDF® format from key layers of geographic data – orthoimagery, roads, geographic names, contourshydrographic features - found in The National Map, which is a nationwide collection of integrated data from local, State, Federal, and other sources. and

US Topo users can turn geographic data layers on and off as needed; zoom in and out to highlight specific features or see a broader context; and print the maps, in their entirety or in customized sections, on a wide variety of printing devices. Additional analytical tools are available free for download. File size for each digital 7.5-minute quadrangle is about 15-20 megabytes.

The prototype of US Topo, "Digital Map–Beta," has been available since June 2009 and currently covers 17 states. US Topo maps include all of the content of the earlier "Digital Map–Beta," plus integrated contours and hydrographic features.

Street view to Gov's Island & some new mapping books

Google Street View comes to Governor's Island (but not much coverage as of this posting)


View Larger Map

And the NY Times reviews two mapping books; Strange Maps and The Fourth Part of the World.

Apple making map apps, 3 Google Earth trends & Dave Bouwman on Emergency Response Apps

Apple to Take iPhone's Maps App to 'the Next Level'

Three Google Earth trends for 2010

Dave Bouwman on Emergency Response Apps

Usability for Emergency Response Applications from Dave Bouwman on Vimeo.

Online Map Crowdsourcing & SUNY Div. I?

Online Maps: Everyman Offers New Directions - from the NYTimes - a piece on map crowdsourcing

Should SUNY schools focus on sports or drop them? I'm a graduate of SUNY undergrad (Geneseo, where I played D III lacrosse) and grad (Buffalo) and fully support athletics.

Rift in Africa (new Ocean), Go

New Ocean May Be Forming In The Desert (NPR)
- listen here

and Google's Go Programming Language (interestingly, I've, for the first time ever, disregarded Google Maps b/c they didn't have the street linework I needed and used Bing Maps----did I just choose Microsoft over Google!!! NOOOO!!!)


or looking for a job as a Grateful Dead Archivist - UC Santa Cruz needs you!

And head over to OpenGeoData blog.

Even more Google Maps data mishaps

Henderson, NV mislabeled as Rochester

Peter Batty ponders if the Google Maps data change was a mistake...

Google Author interviewed on Fresh Air

Fresh Air's Terry Gross interviews author Ken Auletta (mp3) about his new book on Google.

Geoprocessing for Environmental Modeling

As of late I've been taking Highway/Rail/BRT CAD drawings converting them into Geodatabases (GDB) and processing these GDB's to analyze the environmental effects (wetlands, tax parcels, aquisitions, displacements, etc.) of each possible Option. While I've done this task before for many projects. I've never completed anything like this in a comparable scope.

What we have are 6 Options for a 15 mile corridor combining Bus Rapid Transit (BRT/BRT HOV), Commercial Rail Transit (CRT), and highway extension alternatives along with their stations. Each Option has 3 sub-options and there are 36 possible station scenarios. Now imagine doing about 10 geoprocessing steps for each of these 18 Alignment and 36 Stations by hand for each environmental constraint.

This is exactly why modelbuilder exists. We accomplished what took 4 months of environmental analysis that was done by hand for our Transit Mode Selection Report and finished it in 1 week (granted under immense pressure and dozens of hours beyond the 40 hour work week) for our Transit Alignment Options Report.

DGN to Geodatabase warning!!! Beware of Modelspace

If your DGN's have multiple model spaces you cannot use the Import from CAD tool in GIS. You must save as, or export from Microstation to DXF which then creates one DXF for each modelspace in the DGN. This is a bummer. But after getting the DGN linework and working with one of our Microstation guru's I found that you can batch convert DGN's making this whole process much less time-consuming. Now if only I had my modelbuilder DXF to File GDB, select centerlines and ROW impacts tool set up so folder structures would be intuitively created...

And how come there's no organizational structure level lower than the feature dataset, such as a feature subdataset or something?

.dbf's not supported in Microsoft Excel 2007

Just upgraded to Microsoft 2007 at work and was amazed to find out that Excel no longer supports .dbf's. It's well documented here at the GIS at Vassar blog.

Mac Mini Server and other Apple updates

A few posts back I mentioned how people were setting up Mac Mini's as web servers and now with the latest round of updates with Apple, Apple is marketing the Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server.

Check out the Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server.

CNET Review

and the new Apple Mouse is pretty cool too. Oh and Apple updated the iMac too.

Getting Started with Scripting in ArcGIS 9 (Python)

Moving from Ruby to Python.

ESRI: Make a Map

Here's a sample map from ESRI's Make a Map portal

FX Ruby (can't get configured on Snow Leopard) & Parcels in Google Maps

After two weeks and countless emails and web searches I've given up trying to configure FXRuby on Snow Leopard and the good folks at Pragmatic Programmers have agreed to let me return and trade-in my book. I'll probably get something on Python or maybe hold on to it until FXRuby is supported for Snow Leopard.


Google Maps Tax Parcels
From Entchev

Google launched a massive map data update today, plus a number of other changes. On the data front -- parcel data are now available for some areas in the US (more on that later). Also available are "more detailed natural features like parks and water bodies, and new base map data types like bike paths and university campus maps." There is also a new feature on Google Maps that allows users to report map data problems and send feedback directly to Google. Which brings me back to the data -- "Google has decided to stop using Tele Atlas map data for the U.S. Google will now use its own map data." At this point it is unclear what the source of Google's "own" data is, and what happens to the user-generated updates.

Browsing the New Jersey map, I found that parcel data is available for some counties (Mercer, Ocean) and not for others (Middlesex, Passaic). These cursory findings did not match my (quite accurate) inventory of GIS parcel data availability in NJ. Developing...

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Moving on to FXRuby

Finished my first book on programming Ruby (author Chris Pine). It was all command line programming and before I move on to Ruby on Rails I'm going to tackle the desktop GUI first with FXRuby and maybe think about getting PickAxe for more reference. Here's what FXRuby is:

'FXRuby is a library for developing powerful and sophisticated cross-platform graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for your Ruby applications. It’s based on the FOX Toolkit, a popular open source C++ library developed by Jeroen van der Zijp. What that means for you as an application developer is that you’re able to write code in the Ruby programming language that you already know and love, while at the same time taking advantage of the performance and functionality of a featureful, highly optimized C++ toolkit.
Projects Using FXRuby

Projects using FXRuby include:

* BeERP is a commercial ERP built entirely with the FXRuby library.
* Discretizer is an interactive mesh creation tool. It can be used to create geometry and meshes for three dimensional flow simulations (CFD).
* foxGUIb is an interactive gui builder and codegenerator for FXRuby. This tool makes it easy to quickly build complex and good looking graphical user interfaces for Ruby.
* FXRI is a FXRuby Interface to RI that supports search-on-typing. FXRI is a small little program that tries to provide the desired information as fast as possible.
* fxtwitter is a simple Twitter client written in Ruby.
* FreeRIDE is an IDE for the Ruby programming language.

If your project uses FXRuby for its user interface, and you’d like to see it listed here, please send me an e-mail with the information.

© 2008 Lyle Johnson'

What is Google Waves?

Google is unleashing a new product called Google Waves.

Check out the video on it:

NY teams sweep last Sunday

On a rare Sunday afternoon when the Jets and the Giants played at the same time — and the Yankees and the Mets had games in the early afternoon — the Jets’ 24-17 win over the Tennessee Titans generated the highest rating in the New York market.

Only two of the four games were originally supposed to start at 1.

But because of Yom Kippur observances, the N.F.L. moved the Titans-Jets game from 4:15 to 1, and ESPN shifted the Red Sox-Yankees game to 1 o’clock from its nighttime slot at 8 p.m. (but rain delayed the start until after 2 p.m.)...............................

Fahnestock State Park

An AT Trail Marker

A flash of sunlight in a gulley

I'm very excited about the new Ken Burns documentary on our National Parks. I was lucky enough to visit one of New York's finest state parks this Saturday; Fahnestock State Park. Fahnestock contains a portion of the Appalachian Trail (AT). I walked the AT segment that encircles Canopus Lake's Western shore.

Canopus Lake

Canopus Lake from the Snowshoe Trail

View Larger MapCanopus Lake aquatic vegetation

McDonald's Heat Map

The blog Weather Sealed mapped out a McDonald's heat map of the US. The data was purchased from Agg Data (they have tons of corporate retail locations available for sale).

NPR Fall Music Preview

The good folks at All Songs Considered got together to discuss the fall preview of new music. Nothing too extraordinary was revealed and there was a lot of bickering and interruption of the usually good intros by Robin Hilton. The Flaming Lips new track was really interesting and the resulting collaboration that is BlakRoc, various rappers (including Mos Def) and the Black Keys, is really great. I look forward to getting that album.

The fact that its fall already (despite the stickiness of the NYC air right now) makes me start thinking about the NYGeog Best of 2009 Compilation. So if you have any suggestions feel free to shoot me an email at nygeog@gmail.com. The rules are simple; 1. the music has to have come out in 2009 (official or non-official releases accepted), 2. sometimes good songs don't make it on (but will make effort to include up-and-coming artists other songs if their best doesn't fit) because the mix has to flow like an album (as best as I can do).

September 21, 2009 - On this edition of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen talks with Monitor Mix Blogger Carrie Brownstein, producer Robin Hilton, and Song of the Day editor Stephen Thompson about some the albums they're most looking forward to coming out this fall. Hear sneak previews of new music from The Flaming Lips, choral versions of classic Kinks songs by Ray Davies, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova of The Swell Season, a collaboration between The Black Keys and some of the biggest names in hip-hop, The Gossip, and more.

Download this show in the All Songs Considered podcast.

Ruby on Rails & Ruby

I'm learning Ruby and just finished setting up a Ruby on Rails webserver. It was very easy, now all I have to do is get the application configured and working. The two books I'm reading right now are Pragmatic Programmers Bookshelf: Learning to Program, version 2 by Chris Pine and Ruby Visual Quickstart Guide. The Prag Prog book is a entry level programming book and easy/fun to read while the Quickstart is a little more advanced (I downloaded the Kindle version to my iPod Touch) and had the section I used to start Ruby on Rails. I think I may buy a another Prag Prog book if I could only find out which one to buy next.

Zoom through features/bookmarks and export to graphics file

Author	Ken Buja
File Name	ZoomandExport.zip
Language	VB.net
Last Modified	Sep 11 2008
Status of work	Public Domain
Software	ArcGIS Desktop
File Size	554.78 kb
Downloads	988
ArcScripts is intended for the free exchange of scripts and tools related to ESRI software products. Please alert the moderator if this script is a demo, trial-version, or an advertisement for a retail product.
Summary
Created for ArcGIS 9.2, SP 6 or ArcGIS 9.3 (also requires ArcGIS .NET Assemblies) This tool allows you to zoom to each of the bookmarks in a project or each of the point, line, and polygon features of a feature layer (either all the features or a selected subset) and export the map or layout to a graphics file. The files are named by the unique attributes in a field in the layer. If several features share the attribute, the exported map will be zoomed to the extent of the features with the common attribute. If the layout contains several data frames, you can select the data frames that will be zoomed to the same extent as the active frame. This is an update to the Zoom and Export ArcScript (http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=14035) with such improvements as zooming to bookmarks, automatically creating world files for selected export formats, clipping to graphics extent, automatically embedding fonts and others. Complete instructions on how to use the tool are included in the zip file. Version History: 11 Sep 2008: 2.3 • Enhancement - Installer now works with ArcGIS 9.3 • Bug Fix - If running in the data window, an error message will appear after the images have been created and the initial conditions are not reset. 27 Jun 2008: 2.3 • Bug Fix - If an attribute contains a single quote (Bob's Boat Shop), the process will crash 31 May 2008: 2.3 • Bug Fix - If the coordinate system of the data frame is different than the layer to be zoomed, the extent of the selected features is incorrect 23 May 2008: 2.3 • Bug Fix - Installer script gives incomprehensible error message for older service packs 3 May 2008: 2.3 • Enhancement - a unique field is no longer required. The output map will be zoomed to the extent of all features sharing an attribute from the selected field. • Enhancement - other data frames can be zoomed to the same extent as the active data frame. • Bug Fix - Definition Query was not set back to its original query. 7 Feb 2008: 2.1 • Enhancement - rewrote routine to find Unique ID Field, speeding it up considerably • Enhancement - can cancel finding Unique ID fields process and Export process • Bug Fix - Output Image Quality was not set to Best 17 Jan 2008: 2.0 • Initial Release DOWNLOAD

I would like to start profiling more of the ArcGIS add-ons and tools
that I use at work. One of these tools is called the Zoom and Export
tool developed by Ken Buja of NOAA.

ESRI travels with Henry Hudson, web surfing addiction?

Henry Hudson's Travels covered by ESRI Education Community

from ESRI: Over a week ago, I discovered that this year is the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s landing at Manhattan and exploration of the river that now bears his name. More specifically, I learned that in the early weeks of September 1609 Hudson and his crew in the Dutch East India Company commissioned ship Half Moon explored and entered New York Bay and ultimately anchored off Manhattan Island—marking the beginning of the Dutch presence in North America.

The voyage and this event screamed, “Map me!” As a result, I began a hunt for mappable data and more information about what unfolded then. The result was feast, famine, and seemingly endless possibilities. So, I offer this blog post as a GIS “starter” with the prospect that others will evolve the story more fully........

Henry Hudson's Travels KML


Do you have an internet addiction? Surfing the web can be treated. NPR covers internet addiction recovery.

Google Fast Flip Newsreader & Two Students Take Pictures from Space for $150

Google has done it again. Google has created an online Newspaper frontpage web application. The Times profiled Google's new product here.

See for yourself here:

http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/

"Two MIT students have successfully photographed the earth from space on a strikingly low budget of $148. Perhaps more significantly, they managed to accomplish this feat using components available off-the-shelf to the average layperson, opening the doors for a new generation of amateur space enthusiasts. The pair plan to launch again soon and hope that their achievements will inspire teachers and students to pursue similar endeavors."

Read on here:

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-328198

http://space.1337arts.com/flight

Mac Mini Server, Portable GIS Version 2 released & new GeoServer UI

Lately I've been thinking about serving data myself (b/c of my company's strict IT guidelines) for some web mapping examples to help market potential services and what the best way to do this would be. I run Open Source apps at home (on my mac) and ESRI products at my work station. I have tried to develop a MobileMe/.Mac site with some success but it overruns the ability to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes b/c I don't have access to anything beyond the MobileMe storage structure (I think I can still do this effectively using MobileMe but a general desire to learn more about serving data and learning Ruby has lead me to believe I need my own server access to build a better site and process data). Anyway, I learned of a cheap way to build a server using the Mac Mini. See what its all about here.

Announcement: Portable GIS Version 2 is released! Download it here

The current set of software includes:

• Desktop GIS packages QGIS (with GRASS plugin), uDIG and gvSIG,
• FWTools (GDAL and OGR toolkit)
• XAMPPlite (Apache2/MySQL5/Php5),
• PostgreSQL (version 8.4)/Postgis (version 1.4),
• Mapserver, OpenLayers, Tilecache, Featureserver, and Geoserver web applications.

The packages and menu system are all open source, but each component has a separate license. Some of the components have been altered in order to make them drive-letter independent.

and

check out the new GeoServer UI

Ride the City: Bike Routing

Routing and directions has been around for quite some time now for personal vehicles. Google Transit and HopStop brought us routing for public transit systems.

The latest development in routing information systems is Ride the City brought to you by NYU Urban Planning Grad Students. Ride the City routes bikers through NYC's bike paths, onstreet marked lanes and old fashioned riding in the traffic routing with options for safety of the route. Check it out below:

Finder! and Maker! demo of Westchester County, GPS Art & TripTrop NYC

Off the Map has a demo on using Finder! and Maker! to select a place to live in Westchester County.

And the NY Times published an article on people who trace images while running with a GPS to create aerial art.

And triptrop makes a thematic map of time-weighted distances from your location in New York City.

Tomato Harvest

This morning I harvested a bike helmet full of tomatoes, peppers and herbs from my plot in Mickel's Garden. I lost about another helmet's full due to rot or blight (I might blame myself for just not picking them fast enough). Tomato blight has hit the northeast. The NY Times reports on Tomato Blight. To learn more about plant pathogens check out Cornell's Vegetable MD.

All Points West Reviews

Couldn't go myself but the rain didn't stop some folks form enjoying Liberty State Park and some music.

Check out the All Points West Recap.

Linguists using GIS to find remote villages

NY Times article on Linguists documenting dying languages mentions Geographic Information Systems as a way to help identify fringe villages. I'm guessing they are using aerial imagery or image interpretation to find them.

2009 ESRI User Conference & Google Voice

Tomorrow I leave New York for San Diego for the 2009 ESRI User Conference. I would be more excited to go but the weather here in NYC has been so amazing. I'll try to post updates and such from the conference and will be testing out my new Google Voice account.

I received an email from Google saying I could try out Google Voice. Google Voice is a new phone service offered by Google that consolidates your phone and messaging exchanges into one easy-to-use place.

US News shows us the 10 reasons to use Google Voice.

Lifehacker checks out Google Voice.

One number for all your calls and SMS

• Call screening - Announce and screen callers
• Listen in - Listen before taking a call
• Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay
• SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS
• Place calls - Call US numbers for free
• Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones
• Phone routing - Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring

Voicemail as easy as email, with transcripts

• Voicemail transcripts - Read what your voicemail says
• Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone
• Notifications - Receive voicemails via email or SMS
• Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller
• Share voicemail - Forward or download voicemails

More cool things you can do with Google Voice

• Conference calling - Join people into a single call
• Call record - Record calls and store them online
• Call switch - Switch phones during a call
• Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile
• GOOG-411 - Check directory assistance
• Manage groups - Set preferences by group

Nasa makes ASTER and GDEM data public

from Nasa:

NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and industry (METI) released the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) to the worldwide public on June 29, 2009. The GDEM was created by processing and stereo-correlating the 1.3 million-scene ASTER archive of optical images, covering Earth's land surface between 83 degrees North and 83 degrees South latitudes. The GDEM is produced with 30-meter (98-feet) postings, and is formatted as 23,000 one-by-one- degree tiles. The GDEM is available for download from NASA's EOS data archive and Japan's Ground Data System.

Death-Media: on Indie Rock vs. Jam Bands

While on my own I've debated the merits of indie rock vs jam bands, the blog Death-Media has also commented on this topic drawn from Todd P. Roosevelt Island concerts and Animal Collective concerts. Summer is a time of the rare road trip for us New Yorkers. We embrace the chance to load up a car and move at speeds much faster than a subway train into the great greenery and explore rural geographies while shuffling through road trip mixes to help unwind.

Yet, at such times of real release, not the instantaneous sonic and/or olfactory vacation required when jamming into a packed summer subway, it is not the indie music or valued Brooklyn bands that I turn to but classic Grateful Dead, Little Feat, Phish or Tom Petty, classic rock, Wilco, Califone, older Modest Mouse, and the darlings Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes (either def. not from Brooklyn) or anything else that reminds me of the American musical landscape. You can't get into this stuff in 2 minute listens or listen to the last 17 minutes of a Dark Star jam without that first 10 minutes. Perhaps it is just that point why the Brooklyn scene (if it can be classified as a scene, ie hipsterdom, ie indie music - all of which have their merits but combined yield highly image-conscious snootyness towards the jam band scene, of which has also transformed in the years after the Grateful Dead and/or Phish's hiatus's) is more orchestrated into short songs. City dwellers need quick immediate releases from daily inconviences while the rest of the country is capable of absorbing sounds, not from earbuds or designer headphones, from their car stereo over their more relaxing and spacious commute.

Wilco (the album reviews)

Reviews are starting to roll in for Wilco's 7th effort Wilco (the album). I'm hoping to get my copy on vinyl sometime this week. I've been listening to this album a lot more than when the first mp3's were posted. Its a slow burn that creeps up on you. I can't deny liking Sky Blue Sky and find that Wilco, while not blowing me away as much anymore, is consistantly releasing solid albums while other bands come and go in one or two albums.

Professional reviews

• Allmusic link
• Addictive Thoughts link
• Drowned In Sound (7/10) link
• The Independent link
• Pitchfork (7.3/10) [1]
• The Observer link
• PopMatters link
• Spin Magazine link
• The Sunday Times link
• The Tune (A-) link
• Chicago Sun-Times link