Mapping Hacks

Description:

Since the dawn of creation, man has designed maps to help identify the space that we occupy. From Lewis and Clark's pencil-sketched maps of mountain trails to Jacques Cousteau's sophisticated charts of the ocean floor, creating maps of the utmost precision has been a constant pursuit. So why should things change now?

Well, they shouldn't. The reality is that map creation, or "cartography," has only improved in its ease-of-use over time. In fact, with the recent explosion of inexpensive computing and the growing availability of public mapping data, mapmaking today extends all the way to the ordinary PC user.

Mapping Hacks, the latest page-turner from O'Reilly Press, tackles this notion head on. It's a collection of one hundred simple--and mostly free--techniques available to developers and power users who want draw digital maps or otherwise visualize geographic data. Authors Schuyler Erle, Rich Gibson, and Jo Walsh do more than just illuminate the basic concepts of location and cartography, they walk you through the process one step at a time.

Mapping Hacks shows you where to find the best sources of geographic data, and then how to integrate that data into your own map. But that's just an appetizer. This comprehensive resource also shows you how to interpret and manipulate unwieldy cartography data, as well as how to incorporate personal photo galleries into your maps. It even provides practical uses for GPS (Global Positioning System) devices--those touch-of-a-button street maps integrated into cars and mobile phones. Just imagine: If Captain Kidd had this technology, we'd all know where to find his buried treasure!

With all of these industrial-strength tips and tools, Mapping Hacks effectively takes the sting out of the digital mapmaking and navigational process. Now you can create your own maps for business, pleasure, or entertainment--without ever having to sharpen a single pencil.

 

Table of Contents:

Foreword  

Credits  

Preface  

Chapter 1. Mapping Your Life 

      1. Put a Map on It: Mapping Arbitrary Locations withOnline Services  

      2. Route Planning Online  

      3. Map the Places You've Visited  

      4. Find Your House on an Aerial Photograph  

      5. The Road Less Traveled by in MapQuest  

      6. Make Route Maps Easier to Read  

      7. Will the Kids Barf?  

      8. Publish Maps of Your Photos on the Web  

      9. Track the Friendly Skies with Sherlock  

      10. Georeference Digital Photos  

      11. How Far? How Fast? Geo-Enabling Your Spreadsheet  

      12. Create a Distance Grid in Excel  

      13. Add Maps to Excel Spreadsheets with MapPoint  

Chapter 2. Mapping Your Neighborhood 

      14. Make Free Maps of the United States Online  

      15. Zoom Right In on Your Neighborhood  

      16. Who Are the Neighbors Voting For?  

      17. Map Nearby Wi-Fi Hotspots  

      18. Why You Can't Watch Broadcast TV  

      19. Analyze Elevation Profiles for Wireless Community Networks  

      20. Make 3-D Raytraced Terrain Models  

      21. Map Health Code Violations with RDFMapper  

Chapter 3. Mapping Your World 

      22. Digging to China  

      23. Explore David Rumsey's Historical Maps  

      24. Explore a 3-D Model of the Entire World  

      25. Work with Multiple Lat/Long Formats  

      26. Work with Different Coordinate Systems  

      27. Calculate the Distance Between Points on the Earth's Surface  

      28. Experiment with Different Cartographic Projections  

      29. Plot Arbitrary Points on a World Map  

      30. Plot a Great Circle on a Flat Map  

      31. Plot Dymaxion Maps in Perl  

      32. Hack on Base Maps in Your Favorite Image Editor  

      33. Georeference an Arbitrary Tourist Map  

      34. Map Other Planets  

Chapter 4. Mapping (on) the Web 

      35. Search Local, Find Global  

      36. Shorten Online Map URLs  

      37. Tweak the Look and Feel of Web Maps  

      38. Add Location to Weblogs and RSS Feeds  

      39. View Your Photo Thumbnails on a Flash Map  

      40. Plot Points on a Spinning Globe Applet  

      41. Plot Points on an Interactive Map Using DHTML  

      42. Map Your Tracklogs on the Web  

      43. Map Earthquakes in (Nearly) Real Time  

      44. Plot Statistics Against Shapes  

      45. Extract a Spatial Model from Wikipedia  

      46. Map Global Weather Conditions  

Chapter 5. Mapping with Gadgets 

      47. Get Maps on Your Mobile Phone  

      48. Accessorize Your GPS  

      49. Get Your Tracklogs in Windows or Linux  

      50. The Serial Port to USB Conundrum  

      51. Speak in Geotongues: GPSBabel to the Rescue  

      52. Show Your Waypoints on Aerial Photos with Terrabrowser  

      53. Visualize Your Tracks in Three Dimensions  

      54. Create Your Own Maps for a Garmin GPS  

      55. Use Your Track Memory as a GPS Base Map  

      56.  Animate Your Tracklogs  

      57. Connect to Your GPS from Multiple Applications  

      58. Don't Lose Your Tracklogs!  

      59. Geocode Your Voice Recordings and Other Media  

      60. Improve the Accuracy of Your GPS with Differential GPS  

      61. Build a Map of Local GSM Cells  

      62. Build a Car Computer  

      63. Build Your Own Car Navigation System with GpsDrive  

Chapter 6. Mapping on Your Desktop 

      64. Mapping Local Areas of Interest with Quantum GIS  

      65. Extract Data from Maps with Manifold  

      66. Java-Based Desktop Mapping with Openmap  

      67. Seamless Data Download from the USGS  

      68. Convert Geospatial Data Between Different Formats  

      69. Find Your Way Around GRASS  

      70. Import Your GPS Waypoints and Tracklogs into GRASS  

      71. Turn Your Tracklogs into ESRI Shapefiles  

      72. Add Relief to Your Topographic Maps  

      73. Make Your Own Contour Maps  

      74. Plot Wireless Network Viewsheds with GRASS  

      75. Share Your GRASS Maps with the World  

      76. Explore the Effects of Global Warming  

      77. Become a GRASS Ninja  

Chapter 7. Names and Places 

      78. What to Do if Your Government Is Hoarding Geographic Data  

      79. Geocode a U.S. Street Address  

      80. Automatically Geocode U.S. Addresses  

      81. Clean Up U.S. Addresses  

      82. Find Nearby Things Using U.S. ZIP Codes  

      83. Map Numerical Data the Easy Way  

      84. Build a Free World Gazetteer  

      85. Geocode U.S. Locations with the GNIS  

      86. Track a Package Across the U.S.  

Chapter 8. Building the Geospatial Web 

      87. Build a Spatially Indexed Data Store  

      88. Load Your Waypoints into a Spatial Database  

      89. Publish Your Geodata to the Web with GeoServer  

      90. Crawl the Geospatial Web with RedSpider  

      91. Build Interactive Web-Based Map Applications  

      92. Map Wardriving (and other!) Data with MapServer  

Chapter 9. Mapping with Other People 

      93. Node Runner  

      94. Geo-Warchalking with 2-D Barcodes  

      95. Model Interactive Spaces  

      96. Share Geo-Photos on the Web  

      97. Set Up an OpenGuide for Your Hometown  

      98. Give Your Great-Great-Grandfather a GPS  

      99. Map Your Friend-of-a-Friend Network  

      100. Map Imaginary Places  

Index