MetaFilter posts tagged with mapping

Likely named for merchant William Fell

mathowie — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:04:04 -0800

How the streets of San Francisco got their names: a fun little history lesson, nicely formatted as a giant clickable map (with search if you just want to look up a specific street).

Tags: nightmarefuel

Room 641-A — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 19:40:02 -0800

Face Stealer App Will Steal Your Ability to Sleep Yahoo! Japan’s FaceStealer app lets you load up images of other people, animals or cartoon characters, and then map them over your face.

It's 11 o'clock, do you know where you cat is?

jacquilynne — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 09:17:00 -0800

Map My Cat: "So we have a cat, well we have three cats actually. One of them is a ‘little’ overweight, so we put her on a diet. She didn’t seem to loose any weight. We assume she is probably finding other food sources, like friendly neighbours. So what did we do next? Well, normal people would do things like keep their cats inside (ours are kept inside at night but allowed out during the day), or maybe they would buy a tag that says do not feed. But we are geeks and needed a more sophisticated solution." Note: This blog contains cat photos. And maps. So that should pretty much get the internet excited.

This is what happens when you take the blue pill and the red pill.

Room 641-A — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 19:15:17 -0800

Postcards From Google Earth: "I collect Google Earth images. I discovered them by accident, these particularly strange snapshots, where the illusion of a seamless and accurate representation of the Earth’s surface seems to break down. I was Google Earth-ing, when I noticed that a striking number of buildings looked like they were upside down." Clement Valla (previously) explains how Google's The Universal Texture system is changing the way we see the world:

"At first, I thought they were glitches, or errors in the algorithm, but looking closer I realized the situation was actually more interesting — these images are not glitches. They are the absolute logical result of the system. They are an edge condition—an anomaly within the system, a nonstandard, an outlier, even, but not an error. These jarring moments expose how Google Earth works, focusing our attention on the software. They reveal a new model of representation: not through indexical photographs but through automated data collection from a myriad of different sources constantly updated and endlessly combined to create a seamless illusion; Google Earth is a database disguised as a photographic representation. These uncanny images focus our attention on that process itself, and the network of algorithms, computers, storage systems, automated cameras, maps, pilots, engineers, photographers, surveyors and map-makers that generate them."

The Universal Texture WebGL Earth Documentation WebGL Earth 3D Digital Globe

??????-style pizza

unliteral — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:43:50 -0800

Geography of Pizza

Mapping Data

kaibutsu — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:41:29 -0800

In December, the Philadelphia police department released a csv database of major crimes (murder, rape, burglary, etc) since 2006. Since then, community software developers have been mapping the data. The community involvement is hoped to spur the future release of large city data sets. The mapping projects: PHL Crime Mapper Philly Crime Map Philly Rap Sheet (Using court data) AXIS Philly: Changes in Crime by Neighborhood Philly Homicides Animation

Google Invades

liketitanic — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 07:39:15 -0800

Rebecca Solnit on how Silicon Valley corporations are transforming San Francisco: I weathered the dot-com boom of the late 1990s as an observer, but I sold my apartment to a Google engineer last year and ventured out into both the rental market (for the short term) and home buying market (for the long term) with confidence that my long standing in this city and respectable finances would open a path. That confidence got crushed fast. It turned out that the competition for any apartment in San Francisco was so intense that you had to respond to the listings – all on San Francisco-based Craigslist of course, the classifieds website that whittled away newspaper ad revenue nationally – within a few hours of their posting to receive a reply from the landlord or agency. The listings for both rentals and homes for sale often mentioned their proximity to the Google or Apple bus stops. See also: The City from the Valley, Stamen Design's effort to map the Google Shuttle.

Our long international nightmare is over.

panaceanot — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:05:00 -0800

Google Maps App by Google for Apple's iOS is now available. It features turn-by-turn voice navigation and streetview. It's a welcome end to "Map-gate". Recently, an Australian police website posted a cautionary warning about not relying on Apple's mapping service. Hacker news meta discussion. Australia's national broadcaster ABC has also reported concerns by police about Google's mapping system. The good news is that iOS (6) users now have two 'free' turn-by-turn voice navigation apps to use. Redundancy generally being a good thing. (Pre-empting mod intervention... please keep comments constructive please?)

Automatic building mapping could help emergency responders

crunchland — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 05:30:00 -0800

Researchers have developed a backpack that generates building layout map in realtime. (yt) The prototype system automatically maps the wearer’s environment, recognizing movement between floors. It was designed at MIT to be used by emergency responders. Read more.

Apple's iOS 6 Maps app

Egg Shen — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:10:40 -0800

Google makes great maps. But Apple and Google aren't getting along well. So in its new iOS 6, Apple dropped all Google mapping tech in favor of its own Maps app that it promised would "blow your head off". Some people like it. Others don't. But the numbers are that 63 countries with a combined population of 4.5 billion people will lose at least one of the traffic, transit, or street views they had before. And even arch-supporter John Gruber acknowledges " the maps experience in iOS 6 is a downgrade". Google may produce an official Google Maps app for iOS. Then again, they may not.

The effects of modern mapping

peacay — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 06:42:05 -0800

How Google and Apple's digital mapping is mapping us "Digital maps on smartphones are brilliantly useful tools, but what sort of information do they gather about us – and how do they shape the way we look at the world?"

Big (and small) Numbers

fearfulsymmetry — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:09:42 -0800

FatFonts creates numerical fonts where the amount of ink/pixels for each number is in direct proportion to its value.

The National Map (US)

Miko — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:01:12 -0800

"The U.S. Geological Survey has just released more than 161,000 digitally scanned historical maps spanning in excess of 130 years and covering the lower 48 states. This Historical Topographic Map Collection provides a comprehensive repository of the landscape of our Nation..."

Come up to my loft, I'll show you my cartographs.

cortex — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:35:09 -0800

Maps! Maps are great. And Cartophile is a pretty great blog about maps, courtesy our own desjardins, via mefi projects.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree

infini — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 22:14:30 -0800

Chinese archeologists have mapped the layout of Shangdu (better known as Xanadu), after large scale excavations that included the use of GIS in remote sensing and aerial archeology. The capital, located in Inner Mongolia, was built in 1256 under the command of Kublai Khan, the first emperor of Yuan Dynasty, who was enthroned there four years later. It became a summer resort after the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) moved its capital to Ta-tu or Dadu (built by the same architect, located in present-day Beijing) in 1276, and was destroyed during a peasant war at the end of the dynasty. The regional government has submitted an application for World Cultural Heritage status for the site to UNESCO, currently under review. Xanadu has captured the imagination of the West ever since Marco Polo first extolled its beauties in his Books of the Marvels of the World, subsequently immortalized by Coleridge in a poem fuelled by opium fevered dreams. Other recently discovered Yuan Dynasty artifacts include a priceless porcelain vase as well as a sunken ship - part of an invading Mongol armada - off the coast of Japan.

Car Wars

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:57:48 -0800

Nearly a decade of US road accident casualties mapped by location across America from ITO World via the Guardian (they have also done the UK)

Mapping with time rather than distance.

OmieWise — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:50:45 -0800

Time Maps maps the Netherlands based on how long it takes to reach a given destination rather than how far away it is.
We can reach almost any destination by train easily and relatively quick. In our busy lives we now think in time rather than distance[...]From the perspective of Eindhoven, for instance, the Netherlands is relatively small because of the quick and easy connections to other cities. At the same time, seen from a more remote and small village such as Stavoren the Netherlands is much bigger[...]At night the map will expand because there are no night trains and in the morning it will shrink once trains will commence their schedules. Here is a video demonstration.

HUD Interactive Map Tool

Kpele — Wed, 11 May 2011 11:26:52 -0800

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has launched a new interactive mapping tool for Community Planning and Development agencies, interested agency partners, and the public. The tool shows the locations of several kinds of federally-subsidized housing, including HUD Multifamily units, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties, and Public Housing units. It also maps Neighborhood Stabilization Plan (NSP) target areas, Housing Choice (commonly called Section 8) voucher concentration, and other indicators of community health (income level, housing vacancy rate, etc), mostly on a Census tract level. HUD is requesting feedback on this interactive mapping tool and other measures, using an online discussion forum called UserVoice. The forum is accessible to HUD employees and the general public, and allows participants to share, discuss, and vote on ideas for HUD to consider as they advance their FY 2010-2015 Strategic Plan. This particular tool is aimed at helping local jurisdictions develop Consolidated Plans that are more useful for planning and decision-making. Local jurisdictions—cities and counties—that receive HUD funding are required to develop a Consolidated Plan outlining housing needs and priority actions every five years, and these plans influence how local governments spend their federal funding dollars. HUD is considering adding additional data to this map tool, and says that the map data will be updated regularly—though there will be some lag time in rapidly-changing data, such as voucher concentration.

Mapping Petersburg

peacay — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:00:21 -0800

Mapping Petersburg "..explores the everyday life and the material, political, and literary culture of St. Petersburg [..] at the beginning of the twentieth century. It maps eleven itineraries through the city with the purpose of creating a palpable sense of life in Russia's late imperial capital on the eve of the 1917 revolution and during the subsequent decade." [About] [via] "Instead of taking the city's better known landmarks and history, Mapping Petersburg focuses on the relationship between modernity and modernism as it navigates the city's urban life, architectural sites, adopting perspectives that have not been considered before. It offers a unique narrative of the Russian metropolis, bringing together familiar and unfamiliar historical visual and literary material in a new way and creating a guide to the city for scholars, students, tourists, and web users who enjoy virtual travel through the past and to unfamiliar places."

My God, it's full of bars!

loquacious — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 23:27:16 -0800

Thanks to long rainy days and a lot of funky global culture and cross-pollination, Seattle has long been known as an epicenter of music and related creativity where people riff off of each other and freely beg, borrow and steal ideas. But how incestuous is it, really? Who has collaborated with whom? Played gigs together? Worked on albums together? Exactly how complicated is the Seattle music scene? It's so complicated that it needs a map - the Seattle Band Map. Via Wired.

The Projections of Mr. Beam

Partial Law — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:04:08 -0800

Living Room is the latest 3D projection mapping project by Dutch group Mr. Beam, achieved with only two projectors. Many of their other projects have been on a larger scale. [previously]

London's Names

dougrayrankin — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:50:58 -0800

London's Names. A map of London showing the distribution of surnames. Personally, I find myself in Patel country.

In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:00:34 -0800

Cartography is the science of map-making. Seb Przd takes a photo and maps it out to build his own world of cartographical projections.

Good News for Pregnant Needlephobes....

zarq — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:11:50 -0800

Invasive amniocentesis and chorionic villi sampling (CVS) tests are commonly used to determine the chromosomal, structural and genetic abnormalities in fetuses. But could they eventually become obsolete? A Chinese study has found that a complete copy of the fetal genome exists in the mother's blood, suggesting many prenatal diagnoses could potentially be performed noninvasively. Additional coverage: * Nature * Science Magazine * ScienceNews * Genome Web Daily News * New Scientist

The Beautiful Mind

zarq — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:07:56 -0800

"It is only fitting that the story of the brain should be a visual one, for the visuals had the ancients fooled for millenniums. The brain was so ugly that they assumed the mind must lie elsewhere. Now those same skeletal silhouettes glow plump and brightly colored, courtesy of a variety of inserted genes encoding fluorescent molecules. A glossy new art book, “Portraits of the Mind,” hopes to draw the general reader into neuroscience with the sheer beauty of its images." Slide Shows: The Beautiful Mind and Portraits of the Mind Book reviews: The Atlantic: "Columbia neuroscience PhD student Carl Schoonover curates and comments on a selection of images of neuroscience data generated in laboratories all over the world -- many of which have never been seen outside of the research community." Brain Pickings: "Author Carl Schoonover explores — in breathtaking visual detail — the evolution of humanity’s understanding of the brain, from Medieval sketches to Victorian medical engravings to today’s most elaborate 3D brain mapping."