"maps" entries

Four short links: 19 February 2014

Four short links: 19 February 2014

Slippy History, TPP Comic, SynBio Barriers, and 3D City Viz

  1. 1746 Slippy Map of London — very nice use of Google Maps to recontextualise historic maps. (via USvTh3m)
  2. TPP Comic — the comic explaining TPP that you’ve been waiting for. (via BoingBoing)
  3. Synthetic Biology Investor’s Lament — some hypotheses about why synbio is so slow to fire.
  4. vizcities — open source 3D (OpenGL) city and data visualisation platform, using open data.

Visualization of the Week: Mobile World Congress’ economic impact on Barcelona

A visualization shows credit and terminal transactions the week before and the week during Mobile World Congress 2012.

Mobile World Congress is going on this week in Barcelona. CartoDB and BBVA teamed up to visualize the economic impact one of the world’s largest tech conferences has on its host city. The team took the credit card transaction data from Mobile World Congress 2012, separated by visitors and locals, and compared it to transactions the week before the conference in a running timeline visualization:

Read more…

Apple’s maps

Apple's maps problem isn't about software or design. It's about data.

Apple Maps screenshotI promise not to make any snarky remarks about Apple’s maps disaster, and the mistakes of letting a corporate vendetta get in the way of good business decisions. Oops, I lied. But it’s good to see that Tim Cook agrees, at least about quality of the maps. It’s humbling for a company like Apple to issue an apology.

The real issue isn’t the apology, but what happens next. Google seems to be in no hurry to submit a maps app. It’s unclear how much patience Apple’s customers have; on my Android phone, I probably use Google Maps more than anything else. Not having public transit information when I’m in New York would be a deal breaker for me. I suspect Apple’s fans are more loyal, but even that has limits. How long can the fanboys wait?

One article put Apple’s mapping efforts 400 years behind Google. That’s a lot of catch up. And Google certainly isn’t standing still: their addition of underwater photography to “street view” is spectacular, and may serve us well when sea levels rise. But that’s not the point, either. Apple doesn’t have to “catch up” to Google, though I’m sure they’d like to. They just have to get a product that’s good enough. I don’t think that’s a three-to-six-month proposition. But it could be done in a year or two. Read more…

Four short links: 22 December 2011

Four short links: 22 December 2011

Fuzzy Text, Big Data Crime, Map Visualization, and Attacking Server-Side Javascript

  1. Fuzzy String Matching in Python (Streamhacker) — useful if you’re to have a hope against the swelling dark forces powered by illiteracy and touchscreen keyboards.
  2. The Business of Illegal Data (Strata Conference) — fascinating presentation on criminal use of big data. “The more data you produce, the happier criminals are to receive and use it. Big data is big business for organized crime, which represents 15% of GDP.”
  3. Isarithmic Maps — an alternative to chloropleths for geodata visualization.
  4. Server-Side Javascript Injection (PDF) — a Blackhat talk about exploiting backend vulnerabilities with techniques learned from attacking Javascript frontends. Both this paper and the accompanying talk will discuss security vulnerabilities that can arise when software developers create applications or modules for use with JavaScript-based server applications such as NoSQL database engines or Node.js web servers. In the worst-case scenario, an attacker can exploit these vulnerabilities to upload and execute arbitrary binary files on the server machine, effectively granting him full control over the server.

Publishing News: Amazon vs barrier to entry

Amazon breaks through the two-digit price point, a new map misses the mark, and readers peg newspapers as largely irrelevant.

With a $79 price point, Amazon makes ereaders mass market. Also, indie bookstores in London release a map guide (on paper?), and a Pew survey shows newspapers at the tipping point — and not in a good way.

A new look for weather data

WeatherSpark puts weather on display with full-screen maps and historical trends.

WeatherSpark co-founder Jacob Norda talks about making weather data — both real-time and historical — more accessible and intuitive.

Missing maps and the fragility of digital information

Traditional methods come through when connected systems fail.

A couple of months ago, I had a remarkable demonstration of the fragility of the "always on" connected mindset.

Interactive mapping and open data illustrate excess federal property

WhiteHouse.gov puts data to use in its new federal property map.

A new interactive feature posted at WhiteHouse.gov uses open data to visualize excess federal property. The full dataset is also available for download in a structured format.

Maps aren't easy

Pete Warden on digital map creation and data journalism tools.

Data-centric news organizations are using maps to effectively tell stories, but these features don't come easy. In this interview, Pete Warden discusses the grunt work that goes into map creation and the tools that can make it a little easier.

Maps aren’t easy

Pete Warden on digital map creation and data journalism tools.

Data-centric news organizations are using maps to effectively tell stories, but these features don't come easy. In this interview, Pete Warden discusses the grunt work that goes into map creation and the tools that can make it a little easier.