Mapping Hacks: Tips & Tools for Electronic Cartography

565 Pages·2005·17.91 MB·English

by  Schuyler Erle

MAPPING
HACKS
TM
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MAPPING
HACKS
TM
Schuyler Erle, Rich Gibson, and Jo Walsh
Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Paris • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo
Mapping Hacks™
by Schuyler Erle, Rich Gibson, and Jo Walsh
Copyright © 2005 O’Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North,
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Printing History:
June 2005: First Edition.
Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered
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While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and
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This book uses RepKover™, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding.
ISBN13: 978-0-596-00703-4
[M] [4/08]
For Heather, Molly, Maddy, and
Spencer: Thank you.
—Rich
To our family and friends for their
encouragement, wisdom, and support.
—Jo and Schuyler

Contents
Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Chapter1. Mapping Your Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.Put a Map on It: Mapping Arbitrary Locations with
Online Services 1
2.Route Planning Online 7
3.Map the Places You’ve Visited 12
4.Find Your House on an Aerial Photograph 14
5.The Road Less Traveled by in MapQuest 16
6.Make Route Maps Easier to Read 22
7.Will the Kids Barf? 25
8.Publish Maps of Your Photos on the Web 28
9.Track the Friendly Skies with Sherlock 32
10.Georeference Digital Photos 33
11.How Far? How Fast? Geo-Enabling Your Spreadsheet 36
12.Create a Distance Grid in Excel 42
13.Add Maps to Excel Spreadsheets with MapPoint 46
Chapter2. Mapping Your Neighborhood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
14.Make Free Maps of the United States Online 54
15.Zoom Right In on Your Neighborhood 61
16.Who Are the Neighbors Voting For? 65
17.Map Nearby Wi-Fi Hotspots 69
vii
18.Why You Can’t Watch Broadcast TV 73
19.Analyze Elevation Profiles for Wireless Community Networks 82
20.Make 3-D Raytraced Terrain Models 85
21.Map Health Code Violations with RDFMapper 92
Chapter3. Mapping Your World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
22.Digging to China 98
23.Explore David Rumsey’s Historical Maps 99
24.Explore a 3-D Model of the Entire World 106
25.Work with Multiple Lat/Long Formats 110
26.Work with Different Coordinate Systems 113
27.Calculate the Distance Between Points on the Earth’s Surface 116
28.Experiment with Different Cartographic Projections 120
29.Plot Arbitrary Points on a World Map 135
30.Plot a Great Circle on a Flat Map 140
31.Plot Dymaxion Maps in Perl 148
32.Hack on Base Maps in Your Favorite Image Editor 151
33.Georeference an Arbitrary Tourist Map 156
34.Map Other Planets 160
Chapter4. Mapping (on) the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
35.Search Local, Find Global 166
36.Shorten Online Map URLs 170
37.Tweak the Look and Feel of Web Maps 171
38.Add Location to Weblogs and RSS Feeds 173
39.View Your Photo Thumbnails on a Flash Map 175
40.Plot Points on a Spinning Globe Applet 178
41.Plot Points on an Interactive Map Using DHTML 183
42.Map Your Tracklogs on the Web 189
43.Map Earthquakes in (Nearly) Real Time 191
44.Plot Statistics Against Shapes 195
45.Extract a Spatial Model from Wikipedia 199
46.Map Global Weather Conditions 204
Chapter5. Mapping with Gadgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
47.Get Maps on Your Mobile Phone 211
48.Accessorize Your GPS 213
viii | Contents
49.Get Your Tracklogs in Windows or Linux 216
50.The Serial Port to USB Conundrum 219
51.Speak in Geotongues: GPSBabel to the Rescue 222
52.Show Your Waypoints on Aerial Photos with Terrabrowser 227
53.Visualize Your Tracks in Three Dimensions 229
54.Create Your Own Maps for a Garmin GPS 237
55.Use Your Track Memory as a GPS Base Map 249
56. Animate Your Tracklogs 252
57.Connect to Your GPS from Multiple Applications 254
58.Don’t Lose Your Tracklogs! 259
59.Geocode Your Voice Recordings and Other Media 266
60.Improve the Accuracy of Your GPS with Differential GPS 269
61.Build a Map of Local GSM Cells 273
62.Build a Car Computer 278
63.Build Your Own Car Navigation System with GpsDrive 288
Chapter6. Mapping on Your Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
64.Mapping Local Areas of Interest with Quantum GIS 295
65.Extract Data from Maps with Manifold 303
66.Java-Based Desktop Mapping with Openmap 311
67.Seamless Data Download from the USGS 317
68.Convert Geospatial Data Between Different Formats 319
69.Find Your Way Around GRASS 326
70.Import Your GPS Waypoints and Tracklogs into GRASS 333
71.Turn Your Tracklogs into ESRI Shapefiles 336
72.Add Relief to Your Topographic Maps 344
73.Make Your Own Contour Maps 351
74.Plot Wireless Network Viewsheds with GRASS 356
75.Share Your GRASS Maps with the World 366
76.Explore the Effects of Global Warming 371
77.Become a GRASS Ninja 382
Chapter7. Names and Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
78.What to Do if Your Government Is Hoarding Geographic Data 394
79.Geocode a U.S. Street Address 399
80.Automatically Geocode U.S. Addresses 403
Contents | ix