NYGeog

2012 GIS Goals

2012-01-26T09:58:00.003-05:00

Welcome to 2012. I'm about 26 days late.

Anyway, I thought I'd use my blog (that I barely post to anymore because of twitter) to mark some of my goals for 2012. 2011 started slow, but this fall I delved deeper into my Python work and web mapping work with Google Maps.

1. Become more proficient with Python, especially the other modules, iters, calendar, etc.

2. Learn GeoDjango, learn it.

3. Learn even more about the Google Maps API and Fusion tables.

4. Utilize Dropbox more for non-sensitive GIS data.

It was hard to not automatically #hashtag every other word, weird. Anyway, good luck to everyone in 2012 and I hope your GIS wishes come true.

Shapefile to KML from OGR GDAL

2011-11-29T19:05:00.001-05:00

Over the last few years there have been quite a few tools developed, including from Esri, that generate .kml files from your Shapefiles. They can be tough to use at times or easy but none are as satisfying as running from OGR GDAL at the command line. Why? Who cares, its just cool to be able to run things from the command line. Go here to follow Google's how-to:http://code.google.com/apis/kml/articles/vector.html

If you download and install GDAL OGRhttp://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/DownloadingGdalBinaries

Go here at Google Code http://code.google.com/apis/kml/articles/vector.html and follow the easy steps. And then open up your new .kml in Google Earth.

Even later on you can customize more with libkml. http://code.google.com/p/libkml/

My first Stata command, summing two fields into a new field, why its easier than ArcGIS

2011-10-25T13:40:00.005-04:00

So I barely use any software that's not GIS-related. Anyway, without making a list of the silly things that take forever in ArcGIS - at modelbuilder and even at python - (aka, deleting multiple fields for large datasets, took 8 hours last night!!!!), I've known I need to learn Stata to better manage my output files, so I requested Stata 12 and figured I'd share a little of my learning experience for my own reference but also in case anyone else is just starting out.

I'd like to start generating some calculated variables outside of ArcGIS. Some of my variables such as percent (PCT) of a population or densities could more efficiently be calculated outside of ArcGIS.

Here's how I've been adding a new field and calculating in ArcGIS:

I created model that has input parameters and allows the user to input everything they need to add a new field and calculate. It saves me just a little time by not having to add both models or type out all of these lengthy commands.

Here's the Python code:

# Import arcpy module
import arcpy

# Script arguments
Input_Table = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0)

New_Field_Name = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(1)

Field_Type = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(2)
if Field_Type == '#' or not Field_Type:
Field_Type = "LONG" # provide a default value if unspecified

Calculate_Field_Name = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(3)

Calc_Expression = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(4)

Field_Expression_Type = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(5)
if Field_Expression_Type == '#' or not Field_Expression_Type:
Field_Expression_Type = "PYTHON_9.3" # provide a default value if unspecified

# Local variables:
Output_Feature_Class = Input_Table
Output_Feature_Class__2_ = Output_Feature_Class

# Process: Add Field
arcpy.AddField_management(Input_Table, New_Field_Name, Field_Type, "", "", "", "", "NULLABLE", "NON_REQUIRED", "")

# Process: Calculate Field
arcpy.CalculateField_management(Output_Feature_Class, Calculate_Field_Name, Calc_Expression, Field_Expression_Type, "")

Granted, there's Parameters instead of real values, but you get the idea, each of those parameters need to be filled out and all this code needs to run.

Here's the Stata code:

gen SUM_M11M12 = TRT_POPM11 + TRT_POPM12

That was easy!

Granted, this was only a numeric calculation, I still feel super confident about my Python/VBScript string 'skillz'[:5] + 's', but just saying, Stata is super fast and at the end of the day, those last numeric calc's might be best served in Stata.

Calculating Geometry Measurements in Python

2011-09-26T14:02:00.000-04:00

Calculating Geometry Measurements in Python

from Esri - http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/arcgisdesktop/com/gp_toolref/data_management_tools/calculate_field_data_management_.htm

All below from Esri:

Python expressions can use the geometry Area and Length properties with an areal or linear unit to convert the value to a different unit of measure.

!shape.area@acres!

Split Layer By Attributes for ArcGIS 10

2011-09-12T13:47:00.002-04:00

This is an update to a tool I used a lot before migrating over to 10. I just needed something similar recently - for some zonal stats stuff and saw it was updated for 10. Thanks Dan Patterson.

http://resources.arcgis.com/gallery/file/geoprocessing/details?entryID=37AEB018-1422-2418-A036-CA6D9920F808

VBA: Link From ArcMap to Google Maps

2011-09-08T10:30:00.002-04:00

The link below has a tool to link ArcMap to Google Maps and Streetview;

http://gis.utah.gov/code-visual-basic/vba-link-from-arcmap-to-google-maps

I've used this tool for a while at 9.3.1 but just started to use it again at ArcGIS 10.

Removing or Flattening Z and M values from a point Feature Class

2011-08-04T16:39:00.003-04:00

I've had to flatten a Z value-laden point file before, or for whatever reason seen CAD data with M-awareness. For the life of me though I couldn't recall how the heck I did it in the past. It's like those tasks in GIS you do only once in a blue moon and cannot remember the name of the tool or what terms to search (see lattice dem).

Anyway, its actually a very simple process of exporting your data in ArcCatalog and just setting the environments.

http://support.esri.com/en/knowledgebase/techarticles/detail/35818

from Esri:

Summary

Instructions provided describe how to create a copy of a feature class and disable M- and Z-value associations for the output feature class. These associations cannot be removed from an existing feature class.

M-values are routing values.

Z-values are elevation values.

Procedure

Browse to ArcToolbox > Conversion Tools > To Geodatabase.
Open the Feature Class to Geodatabase (multiple) tool.
Add all the feature classes into the Input Feature Class parameter.
Select an Output Geodatabase.
Click the Environments button at the bottom of the tool dialog box.
Expand the General Settings.
For the parameter, Output has Z Values, change the value to Disabled.
For the parameter, Output has M Values, change the value to Disabled.
Click OK in the Environments dialog box.
Click OK to execute the geoprocessing tool.

Esri Press Books I've been reading & Float vs Double

2011-08-04T10:19:00.005-04:00

It's been a while since my last post, I've been using twitter more and more, which means I've been posting less and less content and tips and tricks. I've been spending a lot of time messing around with Python (and after a few months of realizing I had the wrong installation of Python, I've now got my arcpy and other modules running smoothly) and relearning how to do things with modelbuilder.

I've started going through Getting to Know ArcGIS: Modelbuilder (http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=195&moduleID=0) to help relearn and understand the things I've been doing for a few years. This is the first comprehensive text on modelbuilder I've seen and there is so much value in Iteration and a whole slew of other tools that would have helped my modelbuilder experiences earlier on.

I've also been reading Modeling Our World (2nd Edition): The ESRI Guide to Geodatabase Concepts (http://store.esri.com/esri/showdetl.cfm?SID=2&Product_ID=1247&Category_ID=56). This book is really great. It provides a great overview of GIS data and is a great all-in-one refresher. So I'm going to try and post more and more about the little things in ArcGIS.

Now, on to Float vs. Double.

So for a long time I've been defaulting to using Double because it allows for 16 significant digits. However, as I read in Modeling Our World, Float stores 7 significant digits and is half the storage space of Double. I usually use Double when dealing with decimals but after realizing that I'm essentially expanding all my databases, with sometimes many many fields, to be double (no pun intended) the size they need to be because often when I deal with decimals, 7 digits is more than enough. So by cutting down the size of my databases I will be reducing my storage footprint but also hopefully speeding up my processing time.

DUHHHHH.

So the takeaway should be, if you don't need Double, use Float.

"Floats use half the byte storage of doubles" - Michael Zeller, Modeling Our World

For more info on field types see:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//003n0000001m000000.htm

My First Google Fusion Map

2011-05-10T13:56:00.002-04:00

Below is my first Google Fusion map showing 2000 Census Tract boundaries in NYC. I haven't messed around with Fusion much but will be looking forward to seeing if I can use it for some of my projects.

The future of ArcGIS on Apple Computers (running BootCamp) and using external drives with the faster I/O Thunderbolt

2011-05-09T17:25:00.007-04:00

So with the release of the latest Apple Macintosh MacBook Pro and iMac computers with the new Thunderbolt I/O I have been thinking a lot about what this means for running ArcGIS software on Mac hardware. When I'm not in the office I'm running ArcGIS one of three ways on my mac; Remote Desktop Connection, Virtualization (Parallels or VMWare Fusion), OR by using Bootcamp.

Remote Desktop Connection - requires internet connection and my desktop at work to be on; screen space and graphics are lacking, faster b/c it writes directly to internal drives.

Virtualization - I've pretty much given up on this since there's reduced performance from allocation of RAM.

Bootcamp - this is my preferred method of using ArcGIS, however since my disk space is finite I tend to run this on external drives, thereby reducing my processing speed b/c of the read/write time. I use either FAT32 (which stinks b/c of the file size restrictions) or NTSF which supposedly, but I haven't had trouble with it yet, has problems writing when using the Mac OS.

When using Bootcamp, I also write to my Mac's main hard-drive sometimes as well as Mac OSX (Journaled) formatted disks using MacDrive.

Why do I run ArcGIS on a mac? Well mostly b/c I just find the Mac hardware and experience much better. Also, I find that my system is actually more stable. So if I could write to disk using Thunderbolt ports, assuming Bootcamp has the write Drivers and I can use MacDrive to access Mac OSX (Journaled) drives for data, I would most certainly build a very nice reliable primary system using ArcGIS on Apple hardware utilizing Thunderbolt I/O technology.

I look forward to learning if and how I could do this.

How Much Do GIS Consultants Charge in 2011?

2011-04-28T13:12:00.002-04:00

In Directions Magazine Atanas Entchev posted an article entitled How Much Do GIS Consultants Charge in 2011?

Billing rates, summary of all respondents

Billing rates, summary of private entities

Commentary

A few interesting (to me, at least) observations:
While private entities charge more (as expected), they do not charge that much more than non-profits and academic institutions.
The lowest prices in all categories (except data conversion) came from private entities.
The survey results jive nicely with the GSA schedules and the New Jersey GIS state contract pricing.
The only notable exception is the data conversion numbers – higher on average in the survey than in other data sources.
I am surprised that training does not command higher rates.
Applying the 25% rate of inflation change to the 2001 prices gets us very close to the numbers in the above tables.

Comments from survey respondents

“Tough economy has started fierce price wars.”
“Consulting jobs in West Texas are rare. I usually quote by the job.”
“I think you should have also asked how many years you have been in business. While I put my hourly rate down, 80% of my business is project-based fees as opposed to hourly.”
“I charge different rates on a sliding scale depending on the client; e.g. charge less for non-profits and more for private clients.”
“I live in a rural community and realize my rates are very low. I have lower rates when I have on-site services with a set hourly commitment.”
“I also work for a flat project fee. My clients are all non-profits, so I tend to think I charge less than say private company contractors.”
“I have to spend a lot of 'business development' time to get work. I charge $150 per hour.”
“These rates are for our NYC staff, most of our other locations have lower rates.”
“Many projects not on hourly basis but fixed price.”
“We also charge a flat fee for plotting maps- $35 (does not include labor for setting up map files or data for presentation).”

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

NYTimes: 200th Birthday for the Map That Made New York

2011-03-22T13:46:00.003-04:00

200th Birthday for the Map That Made New York

Check out this cool article on the 200th B'day of the grid map, known as the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 (arguably one of the most influential determinants of the Manhattan landscape) that gridded most of Manhattan. And this really cool interactive map feature that allows you to overlay the old historic maps with the current geography and also street openings in Manhattan over time.

In contrast to Pierre L’Enfant’s grandiose national capital, the street commissioners adopted what Reuben Skye Rose-Redwood, a geographer and expert on the grid, described as “a physical representation of the Cartesian coordinate system.”

New 311 Mapping Application for New York City

2011-02-22T14:27:00.004-05:00

Check out the new 311 Mapping Application for New York City:
http://nyc.gov/apps/311srmap/
I haven't seen this data yet available on Datamine but I'm looking out for it.

ArcGIS Server 10 for Java Installed and Running - After Some Post Install Admin Firewall Issues!

2011-02-01T12:59:00.008-05:00

One of the things I'd like to get under my GIS belt this year, in addition to becoming proficient with Python, is to setup an ArcGIS Server web mapping application using Java. So the install went smoothly and I received our license number and authorized the installation.

Then I went to access the ArcGIS Server Manager to start authoring some test web maps. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the username password screen!!! I used all the default usernames and set the password to something very simple. Then I tried the Post Install again and again, nothing worked.

Finally, I contacted someone who does ArcGIS Server in another part of the university's organization and explained that this is a common issue and I should turn the Firewall off. I did that and it worked. So the next step is to figure out how the heck to get the Firewall to work and ArcGIS Server to work.

Python Field Calculator: counting characters in a string using .count()

2011-01-25T13:47:00.003-05:00

Let's say you have a field with many items in it-say you have a shapefile of states and a field with the names of all the major rivers in that state and the river names are separated by a dash. Ex. [Nile R.-Mississippi R.-Hudson R.-Snake R.-Potomac R.-Yellow R.]

If you wanted to count the number of rivers in each state in a new field you could simply count the delimiter, the dash (-) and add 1 (because each dash separates one river from another it'll be one less dash always than the number of rivers).

Go to you field calculator, select Python and use this expression;

(!riversfieldname!.count('-'))+1

Your calculating field should be short integer in this example and should return a value of 6 in this example.

Field Calculator Python adding strings and integers with + instead the old &

2011-01-13T15:00:00.003-05:00

Another Python tidbit from a post I made in someone else's thread: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/18861-Field-Calc-VB-to-Python-help-%28-will-trade-work%29?highlight=python+string+integer

So I have a Unique ID field but its a text field with characters in the string (9X123456) and the create Lines from X,Y tool requires the ID field to be a number. I came up with 123456 & 01 (X is now a number) & 9 ie 9X123456 becomes 123456019. I can do this pretty easy in VB Script in the Field Calculator in a temp text field.

[GEOID] & "019"

I say this expression in Python;

This looks like it works

long(str(!GEOID!) + '019')

As Chris Snyder responded:

The Python concatenate operator is actually '+', so for example:

print "my" + " " + "dog"
'my dog'

So the expression would be:

long(str(!GEOID!) + '001' + '009')

Another simple way of "integerizing" your string unique id:

Run a frequency on your string field using the Frequency tool. Then join the frequency table to the original table. The OBJECTID field (a long integer BTW) of the frequency table gives you a 1-to-1 with the text version unique id.

You can also do something similar using cursors via Python...

Python Equivalent to Right( ) in VB for ArcGIS Field Calculator

2011-01-06T14:33:00.001-05:00

I'm starting to use Python in the Field Calculator and I just found this out after an hour or so of frustration using rstrip() and rsplit() realized its even easier though not as obvious.

So lets say I wanted to remove the leading character of a 8 digit string in my [UID] field

In VB I'd say:

Right([UID], 7)

In Python I'm saying

!UID![1:]

You may put numbers after the colon [1:4] as well to manipulate the return string lengths and where the string is pulling those lengths from, other than that I don't know but it may help if someone knows the name of this function - if so please comment below?

I posted this to the forum: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/20620-Python-Field-Calculator-Equivalent-of-Right%28-%29-or-Left%28-%29-in-VB-Field-Calculator?p=66668#post66668

Replace((Right([ID],3)), "_", "") in ArcGIS Field Calculator

2010-12-17T08:26:00.005-05:00

It seems like for the longest time I've used multiple temp fields for parsing values out of non-standard length text or integer unique ID values. For example, in a text field, unique (shown here in a python list format for no reason in particular other than I am learning python) ID's like;

list = [12345_N1, 12345_B25, 6789_N1, 6789_B25, 6789_B50]

Normally, I would create a temp field and say;

Right([list], 3)

create a temp2 field and select the '_N1' values and calculate that separately with;

Right([list], 2)

and then combine the two things together into one field in a haphazardly but workable way.

Granted, the more complex a statement is, the more chances for error, but once the syntax is set and ingrained in your vocabulary its amazing how much work you'll save in the future. So a more elegant solution to the problem stated above with just one field and one calculation is;

Replace((Right([ID],3)), "_", "") *

So what we are doing here is using the Replace function, which is like;

replace([FIELD_name],"",""

So instead of using [FIELD_name] I'm saying remove these stupid underscores from our selection of the 3 characters from the right side of the field and replace them with "" or nothing.

*Replace (see http://resources.arcgis.com/content/kbase?fa=articleShow&d=20119)

According to Neocartography, the Replace function "kicks ass" (see http://neocartography.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/kicking-ass-with-the-replace-function-in-arcmap-field-calculator/).

Census releases: 2005-2009 American Community Survey Data and in 6 days State-level 2010 Census Data

2010-12-15T09:17:00.003-05:00

Census releases: 2005-2009 American Community Survey Data (ACS) and in 6 days State-level 2010 Census Data

Check out the NY Times interactive Mapping of 2005-2009 ACS Data http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?hp

From Streetsblog: NYC Agencies Take Home EPA’s Top Honors For Smart Growth

2010-12-06T11:10:00.002-05:00

From Streetsblog:
NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden were down in D.C. yesterday to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s annual “Overall Excellence in Smart Growth” award. The EPA highlighted four PlaNYC-related initiatives for recognition: NYC DOT’s Street Design Manual, the city’s Active Design Guidelines, City Planning’s Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program, and the zoning amendment that passed in 2009 requiring new apartments and offices to include bike parking.

MORE...

ModelBuilder-Advanced Technologies ESRI UC Video

2010-12-01T18:18:00.001-05:00

http://video.esri.com/watch/91/modelbuilder-advanced-technologies

Here is a great video from the ESRI User Conference 2010 on Advanced Modelbuilder capabilities. It covers iterations which is awesome for me because its something I'd really like to leverage in my models.

Shopping's Black Friday Twitter Brand Analysis

2010-11-29T12:12:00.002-05:00

Black Friday Twitter Brand Analysis - from OFF THE MAP - Sean Gorman

Border Dispute: Nicaragua and Costa Rica

2010-11-05T13:25:00.002-04:00

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on a mapped border dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica

http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2010/11/05/google-maps-caught-in-border-dispute/

Bing Maps drops 3D

2010-11-05T13:22:00.001-04:00

Bing Maps is dropping their 3D services in favor of their oblique imagery services. Check it out here:

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2010/11/bing_maps_is_dropping_their_3d_vers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+GoogleEarthBlog+(Google+Earth+Blog)

Gridded Population of the World

2010-11-05T12:42:00.001-04:00

Here at Columbia, SEDAC (http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/) part of CIESIN (http://ciesin.columbia.edu/) created a gridded population of the world dataset (http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/). It is great for finding population for places around the world that you might not easily find data for.

Python code: Get count of features in feature class

2010-10-26T17:21:00.003-04:00

Working on the Python command line in ArcGIS 10 I decided to try out some of the code examples:

>>> result = arcpy.GetCount_management("feature_class_name")
>>> print result.getOutput(0)
54 (or # of features in a feature class)

So this worked pretty well. However, and this seems to be a big however, but maybe not as it is likely beneficial at some point, but the number of features is resultant upon the selection of the features in the feature class. So if you have a certain number of features selected in that feature class then that will be the returned output not the total number of features. If nothing is selected then you will get the total number of features in that feature class. So perhaps the lesson is that what is in the "quotes" is not the feature class as we know it, but as the feature layer, as in what is defined in the map document.

NYC Composting Guide

2010-10-18T10:37:00.002-04:00

I've been looking into setting up an outdoor compost bin and The Lower East Side Ecology Center (http://www.lesecologycenter.org) has a great composting guide.

See the PDF here: http://www.lesecologycenter.org/images/LESEC/pdfs/outdoorcompost.pdf

Mt. St. Helens reforestation in GE

2010-10-13T18:52:00.001-04:00

From Google Earth Blog:

Each year since the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, NASA has captured imagery of the area using one of their Landsat satellites. Over the course of those 30 years, you can watch how the earth slowly reclaims the land that was destroyed in the eruption.

If you want to see the imagery inside of Google Earth, you can use this KMZ file(27MB), or watch the video below which shows all of the images from 1979 through today.

Wikileaks Report Activity in Afghanistan Viz

2010-10-07T11:07:00.001-04:00

I saw this visualization of wikileak report activity in Afghanistan a while back but recently was talking about it - so I thought I'd share it. Very cool.

Visualisation of Activity in Afghanistan using the Wikileaks data from Mike Dewar on Vimeo.

Typographic Maps

2010-10-06T14:18:00.002-04:00

Axis Maps LLC brings us some very cool typographic maps of Boston, MA and Chicago, IL.

Check them out here: http://www.axismaps.com/typographic.php

DIY Cartography: Map Pins

2010-09-27T13:43:00.003-04:00

Here's an interesting post on old-school map pins from DIY Cartography: (http://makingmaps.net/2010/09/27/a-discourse-on-map-pins-and-pinnage/)

Data.gov launches Geo Viewer

2010-09-22T08:15:00.004-04:00

Data.gov launches Geo Viewer (http://www.data.gov/whatsnew/geoviewer)

NPR WNYC Brian Lehrer Show Interview and Penn State's Geospatial Revolution Project

2010-09-15T17:46:00.009-04:00

Penn State, along with their online masters program, has a great new video on the Geospatial Revolution, which in direct opposition to Gil Scott Heron, will be televised or at least on youtube.

Here's the link (http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2010/sep/09/map-your-moves-data-visualization-challenge/) to the segment I was on and below is the audio.

Brian Lehrer Show tomorrow

2010-09-08T15:18:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow I'll be on a segment for the Brian Lehrer Show on a graphic visualization of moves of New Yorkers surveyed online.

http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/bl/blogs/scrapbook/2010/aug/18/map-your-moves-data-visualization-challenge-submissions/

Arcade Fire - Google Maps - Geocoding Music Video

2010-08-30T13:48:00.002-04:00

The Arcade Fire: 'We Used to Wait'

The Arcade Fire and Chris Milk have created an interactive music video that requires you to input your home address and creates a custom music video showing aerial photography and streetview.

Solar Power Plane Flies 26 Hours

2010-07-08T09:39:00.002-04:00

“When you took off it was another era,” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Piccard as saying. “You land in a new era where people understand that with renewable energy you can do impossible things.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/world/europe/09plane.html

NYC MTA Delay Notification System

2010-07-07T12:37:00.002-04:00

"On the morning of June 29, 2010 there were multiple disruptions in service including a fire and smoke conditions, track circuit failure, brakes in emergency, and sick customers at various locations, which caused massive service delays..."

If you're like me and find that the MTA's Subway service is increasingly bad and if you ever need verification about your lateness isn't your fault but because of mismanaged and under-financed public transit then check out the New York City Transit Delay Verification System.

Also, report your questions to @NYCTSubwayScoop on Twitter

Check out my delay below;
REF. NUM: ----
ENTER DATE: 6/29/2010 10:46:27 AM
SERVICE DATE: 6/29/2010

SUBWAY SERVICE DELAY

Station Entrance Information:
LINE: C Line
BEGIN TRAVEL (STATION): Clinton - Washington Avenues	TIME DEPARTED : 8:00 AM
Transfer 1
LINE: 2 Line
BEGIN TRAVEL (STATION): Fulton Street
ENDED TRAVEL (STATION): 96 Street
Transfer 2
LINE: 1 Line
BEGIN TRAVEL (STATION): 96 Street
ENDED TRAVEL (STATION): 116 Street - Columbia University
Station Exit Information:
ENDED TRAVEL (STATION): 116 Street - Columbia University	TIME ARRIVED: 9:45 AM
LENGTH OF DELAY: 125 minutes

RIDER COMMENTS: F trains were running on the A, C line.

TRANSIT COMMENTS: On the morning of June 29, 2010 there were multiple disruptions in service including a fire and smoke conditions, track circuit failure, brakes in emergency, and sick customers at various locations, which caused massive service delays, reroutes and our trains to be discharged on the A B C D E F G J M N Q R. As a result, any one delay lasted up to 120 minutes on one or on any combination of the aforementioned subway lines.

WE HOPE THIS INFORMATION IS HELPFUL

NYC TRANSIT
CUSTOMER SERVICES

Pianos around NYC & Gulf Spill and Spatial Law

2010-06-17T09:01:00.003-04:00

An organization called Play Me I'm Yours has put publicly available pianos all around NYC. And they even have maps of where the pianos are. awesome.

BP, the Gulf Oil Spill and Spatial Law

...Third, and perhaps most important, is the role spatial data will play in the litigation that will inevitably follow. Lawyers have been slow to introduce spatial technology in the court room. However, I predict that spatial data will play a critical role in Gulf oil spill litigation. One reason is simply that the nature of many of the claims and defenses will have a strong temporal-spatial component....

This Just In: Excel Is the World’s Most Used “Database”

2010-06-15T10:18:00.002-04:00

Hilarious James Fee Post:This Just In: Excel Is the World’s Most Used “Database”

New LIDAR mission NYC

2010-05-10T10:43:00.002-04:00

The NY Times ran a piece about a new LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) flyover to help create a more accurate, up-to-date 3D LIDAR image of New York City.

The aircraft, with a pilot and laser sensor operator for its crew, scanned the urban canyons of the city at about 3,500 feet in nine six-hour, post-midnight flights from April 14 to April 30, said a spokesman for Sanborn, the Colorado-based mapping firm hired for the task.

The focus was on how the roofs can be mapped to find the solar potential for rooftops in NYC but I can imagine a lot more things that can be done with it. I hope its accessible through NYC Data Mine.

Josh Ritter's new album & RIP Walter Sear

2010-05-07T11:17:00.003-04:00

So I've been straying away from music and nyc-happenings postings but I can't not post on this.
Josh Ritter's new album So Runs the World Away is phenomenal. Buy it, download it, rip it, just check it out. The lyrics are great the playing is great.

Also, some sad news, Walter Sear from Sear Sound has passed away. The NY Times has an article here.

Parallel of the Month: The 49th Parallel - US/Canada border

2010-05-04T14:58:00.003-04:00

Looking at a project Study Area I came across the 49th Parallel and how it forms the US/Canada border from Washington State to Minnesota. Read more on wikipedia about the 49th Parallel.

Using ArcMap in ArcGIS Desktop 10 - Seminar

2010-04-29T12:50:00.002-04:00

Using ArcMap in ArcGIS Desktop 10

see What's Coming in ArcGIS 10...

The upcoming ArcGIS 10 release brings many enhancements to ArcMap that will help you produce and share better maps faster. In this seminar, you will learn about key new features that are designed to reduce the time spent on common mapping tasks and improve the quality of your map products. The presenter will show how you can take advantage of the new features to enhance your day-to-day workflows.

Seminar Description | Software requirements | Request a reminder

Thursday, April 29, 2010
9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., & 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time (US & Canada)
12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., & 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US & Canada)
4:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., & 10:00 p.m. UTC/GMT

SQL Statement for Selecting Characters, sequential meaning coded value

2010-04-22T15:19:00.002-04:00

So I received a spreadsheet where the number of asterisks meant the rating of a particular record. It wasn't hard to figure out this SQL statement but I thought it would be valuable to post as remembering something like this may come in handy one day. So I'll include an example using asterisks but this could be used for any type of situation where you need to include a single character but omit when that character comes up twice in sequence.

"Field_Name" LIKE '%*%' AND "Field_Name' NOT LIKE '%**%'

* = the ASCII character we are looking at

Selecting Features by a character without selecting the sequential iterations of it. Maybe a good application would be for like selecting singe 'L's in Spanish language databases w/out selecting the doube 'LL's.

ArcGIS 10 Resources Center

2010-04-05T11:26:00.006-04:00

http://resources.arcgis.com/

I'm really excited about the level of Python integration and support at the ArcGIS 10 level. I just feel as if Geoprocessing is taking a front seat and this new version of ArcGIS is going to bring GIS to the out of the early 2000's.

ArcPy is a site-package that builds on (and is a successor to) the successful arcgisscripting module. Its goal is to create the cornerstone for a useful and productive way to perform geographic data analysis, data conversion, data management, and map automation with Python.

This package provides a rich and native Python experience offering code completion (type a keyword and a dot to get a pop-up list of properties and methods supported by that keyword; select one to insert it) and reference documentation for each function, module, and class.

The additional power of using ArcPy within Python is the fact that Python is a general purpose programming language. It is interpreted and dynamically typed and is suited for interactive work and quick prototyping of one-off programs known as scripts while being powerful enough to write large applications in. ArcGIS applications written with ArcPy benefit from the development of additional modules in numerous niches of Python by GIS professionals and programmers from many different disciplines.

Cool NYC video: 'The Sandpit'

2010-03-17T11:46:00.001-04:00

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Wakey! Wakey! cover Yeasayer acoustic yet awesome

2010-03-15T11:48:00.000-04:00

Cobra Den Invitational: Wakey!Wakey! - Ambling Alp (Yeasayer) from Goddamn Cobras Collective on Vimeo.

My Way - humorous take on Google Maps

2010-03-11T10:41:00.001-05:00

My Way - a humorous artistic take on Google Maps

NY Times Winter Olympics Venue 3D map & 2010 FedUC

2010-02-24T22:55:00.003-05:00

NY Times Winter Olympics Venue 3D map

and James Fee's 'Reflections on the 2010 ESRI FedUC'

Most importantly from the FedUC, ESRI is partnering with Amazon web services.

Olympic Medal Count

2010-02-15T11:57:00.000-05:00

View the vancouver2010.com medals' table

My grad alma mata Univ. Buffalo's GIS/Remote Sensing work in Haiti

2010-02-11T11:21:00.002-05:00

My grad advisor Dr. Renschler and his student's work:

Brooklyn Boondoggle Film about Atlantic Yards

2010-02-08T23:56:00.001-05:00

Brooklyn Boondoggle from meerkatmedia.org on Vimeo.

NYC BigApps

2010-02-05T11:25:00.003-05:00

NYC's opening up of municipal data for application developers is totally awesome.

I want to use the term 'crowdsourcing' for this but it may not be totally appropriate. But it really supports the idea that open government is good and that perhaps the greatest ideas for municipal (or municipal-like) applications do not come from above, as in government bureaucracy, but from the public; applications by people using public data for other people, outside of the normal government's political freak-show.

From NY Times Bits:

The winners of the first NYC BigApps competition, which invited the public to develop applications using raw sets of municipal data, were announced at an event in New York on Thursday evening.

The competition, which the city’s Economic Development Corporation kicked off in June, gave software developers access to more than 170 sets of data from 30 city agencies, including weekly traffic updates, schedules of citywide events, property sales, results of restaurant inspections and mappable data around school and voting districts.

A panel of judges, which included John Borthwick, chief executive of Betaworks, and Fred Wilson, a partner at Union Square Ventures, selected 10 winners from a pool of more than 100 entries. Cash prizes totaling $20,000 will be shared among the winning teams, and they will also be invited to a dinner with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

The top three winners were:

WayFinder NYC: An application designed for smartphones powered by Google’s Android operating system allows users to find the closest subway entrance. It uses an approach known as augmented reality, overlaying subway line symbols on a live view through the phone’s camera.

Taxihack: Like Yelp for cabs, this Web tool allows people to post comments on individual taxis and their drivers via e-mail or Twitter.

Big Apple Ed: This Web-based guide offers detailed profiles, reviews and information about the city’s network of public schools.

An iPhone application called NYC Way that offers a range of information for city residents and visitors, took home the “Popular Choice” award, determined by an online vote.

As my colleague Claire Cain Miller reported earlier, New York isn’t the only city hoping to tap into local talent and encourage city-specific app development. San Francisco and Washington are also trying to figure out how to use the Internet and smartphones to make government data more accessible.

Brooklyn Graffiti Tour

2010-01-29T14:05:00.002-05:00

Brooklyn Graffiti Tour Part 2
(by offManhattan.com)

Go to http://offmanhattan.com/2010/01/25/nyc-graffiti-bushwick-east-williamsburg/
for full article and photos by Arturo Conde.

View Brooklyn Graffiti Tour Part 2 (by offManhattan.com) in a larger map

NY Times internet fee/new Apple device integration...

2010-01-25T12:28:00.003-05:00

The New York Times is starting a fee-based system for avid internet readers. And now it has been reported that NY Times workers have been working with Appl e. It's clear what's going on here. The new Apple product will feature a new mobile device to perhaps replace the newspaper. But, does it fit in your pocket? You can't leave it on the subway or in a trash can (unless you have hundreds of dollars to throw away).

Is this 'the most important thing' Steve Jobs has ever worked on?

Retro GEOINT or new GPS technology

2010-01-21T14:38:00.001-05:00

From GotGeoINT-
Our friends at DoD Buzz recently came out with a story that highlights how the U.S. Air Force — In the face of threats from jamming and attacks on satellites — needs to lessen its dependence on the Global Positioning System and develop alternatives to GPS. According to the article, Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force Chief of Staff, said that GPS signals are particularly vulnerable in time of war since enemies know of the reliance U.S. forces place on its highly accurate signal. The article points out that alternatives to GPS include accurate digital maps, if not the good old ink and paper versions. This certainly caught our attention — the printed/paper maps thing. Is this really true? Is GEOINT going retro? Our gut is saying probably not. We anticipate that technology innovations will trump good old fashioned printed maps. here

Big Map & iPad

2010-01-20T10:50:00.002-05:00

A Big Map That Shrank the World - NY Times

The anticipation for Apple's big event is growing. Will it be a tablet? How will it be different? Should we really expect just a large iPod Touch? Will it be called the iPad, will it? What about new iPhones?

-Bits Blog NY Times

-IT Wire

ArcGIS 9.4 will actually be ArcGIS 10

2010-01-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

ArcGIS 9.4 will actually be ArcGIS 10

Listen to Jack Dangermond's Podcast (mp3)

Faster, more responsive drawing performance including smooth, continuous panning of your data
Easier access to most commonly used geoprocessing tools
New Search window in ArcMap to let you quickly locate maps, data, and tools
Catalog window built into ArcMap for quick data access
Easier and faster ways to find and use symbols and tools
Auto hide and dockable windows (e.g., table of contents) so your focus remains on the map
Ability to execute geoprocessing in the background, allowing you to continue to interact with your map
Automation of additional workflows with Python (maps and layers)
Read on

GeoCommons Haiti Map

2010-01-13T18:15:00.004-05:00

View full map

Haiti Earthquake Location

2010-01-13T14:51:00.001-05:00

View Larger Map

Is Geography the New History?, Netflix rentals mapped & new MTA webpage update Wed.

2010-01-11T09:21:00.003-05:00

Is Geography the New History?

NY Times maps Netflix rentals

& New MTA webpage update on Wednesday (see here http://www.mta.info/ Wednesday).

Top 10 NYC Bands to watch in 2010

2010-01-07T14:36:00.002-05:00

From PopTartsSuckToasted - This is not a list extolling the best bands in New York, rather the bands that you need to watch out for, the ones that are on the cusp of great things, and who will be the next big things hailing from the five boroughs. All of these bands are working on something right now whether it's their demo or their debut full length, they are all at the very beginning of their careers and hopefully will carry on for quite some time. A lot of these guys have been mentioned on these pages before, but really their big breakout moment is gonna be 2010! We're excited every time we listen to these guys or see them on stage and we're pretty sure most of you will be if you give them half a chance too. So get out there, download their mp3's, see their lives shows, and get to know the 10 New York Bands to Watch in 2010!!!....

and they reviewed the Real Estate show at Brooklyn Bowl.

NYC Staycation & Google Nexus One

2010-01-06T13:39:00.003-05:00

After some great vacation time (or should I say staycation), its back to work and maybe put up a few posts. First off, check out the Tim Burton exhibit at MoMa. It's really cool. I saw it over my staycation along with the New Museum and some other random touristy and/or bike trips on a new road bike.

Google's Nexus One has been making some news with the direct sales from Google.

And what's up with the Apple iSlate or whatever it's called. I guess we'll see soon enough. Still don't have my own legit internet connect, thank you Time Warner but will soon have my Mac Mini Server up and running.

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

2009-12-21T13:00:00.005-05:00

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.

View Larger Map

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

2009-12-17T11:08:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-08T10:54:00.004-05:00

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

2009-12-03T11:16:00.002-05:00

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, contours hydrographic 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

2009-12-01T11:16:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-29T18:06:00.003-05:00

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?

2009-11-17T12:26:00.005-05:00

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

2009-11-11T17:20:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-09T11:48:00.001-05:00

Henderson, NV mislabeled as Rochester

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

Google Author interviewed on Fresh Air

2009-11-04T09:07:00.002-05:00

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

Geoprocessing for Environmental Modeling

2009-11-03T14:50:00.003-05:00

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

2009-10-27T15:18:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-22T08:42:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-21T10:40:00.003-04:00

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)

2009-10-19T17:44:00.001-04:00

Getting Started with Scripting in ArcGIS 9 (Python)

Moving from Ruby to Python.

ESRI: Make a Map

2009-10-15T13:12:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-08T10:21:00.006-04:00

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...

View Larger Map

Moving on to FXRuby

2009-10-01T11:58:00.004-04:00

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?

2009-09-30T07:18:00.000-04:00

Google is unleashing a new product called Google Waves.

Check out the video on it:

NY teams sweep last Sunday

2009-09-29T13:38:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-27T20:15:00.005-04:00

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

2009-09-25T09:00:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-24T08:58:00.006-04:00

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

2009-09-23T09:00:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-22T09:22:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-16T17:07:00.001-04:00

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?

2009-09-15T23:07:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-14T23:57:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-10T15:12:00.001-04:00

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

2009-08-31T23:08:00.006-04:00

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:

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

2009-08-26T15:01:00.001-04:00

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

2009-08-20T09:41:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-05T12:08:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-28T12:05:00.001-04:00

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

2009-07-10T09:34:00.001-04:00

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

2009-07-01T10:49:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-30T14:50:00.001-04:00

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.