Adding maps to real estate application

Announcing a Firefox/Greasemonkey script to insert maps into the property listings of www.newenglandmoves.com. The script and a screenshot are here:

http://www.thrall.net/maps/nemoves.html

The interesting thing about this, IMHO, is that I'm loading the gmap javascript files after the page has loaded. Greasemonkey scripts run after the page has loaded so I have to catch the document.write calls and reimplement them via javascript. The relevant code can be found below.

If you like it, feel free to click on one of my ad links ;)

  function loadGmap() {
    GMAP_KEY = YOUR KEY HERE;

    document.write = function(s) {
      var a = s.match(/<script src="(.+)" type="text.javascript">/); 
      if (a) {
        // dodgy... need to let current script load first
        setTimeout('loadScript("'+a[1]+'");', 250);
        return;
      }
      a = s.match(/<style type="text\/css" media="(\w+)">([^<]+)<\/style>/);
      if (a) {
        // can do css right away
        addStyle(a[1], a[2]);
        return;
      }
    }
    loadScript('http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=1&key=' + GMAP_KEY);

  }

  window.loadScript = function(src) {
    var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
    var scr = document.createElement('script');
    scr.src = src;
    scr.type = "text/javascript";
    head.insertBefore(scr, head.lastChild.nextSibling);
  }
  window.addStyle = function(media, contents) {
    var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
    var style = document.createElement('style');
    style.type = "text/css";
    style.media = media
    style.innerHTML = contents;
    head.insertBefore(style, head.lastChild.nextSibling);
  }

(19:38) [/Maps] #

MBTA Subway Maps

I've mapped the Boston subway stations using the Google Maps API. Check it out: MBTA Subway Maps
(20:38) [/Maps] #

Flickr + Google maps

So, I've got most of the pieces put together on my own, but this guy has got the whole thing wrapped up with a bow. Nicely done.

See my flickr photos mapped on google maps
(09:45) [/Maps] #

Google Sightseeing

What a good idea. Create a site that let's you go Google sightseeing. They collect Google Map links to famous and/or interesting locations.

For example, I submitted links to the still under-construction Gillette Stadium and to Guantanamo Bay Cuba
(19:49) [/Maps] #

Gmaps: integrating Terraserver imagery

I'd wanted to hack google maps and replace the tiles with ones from Terraserver. The idea would be to be able to switch back and forth from street map to satellite images. It seems like this should be doable. The 2 main problems are determining the pixels per degree of the terra server zoom levels and dealing with UTM zone boundaries (using terraserver tiles you cannot seamlessly display a map that crosses UTM boundaries)

Instead I wrote a fairly simple bookmarklet that opens a window and displays the satellite image corresponding to the current map. When you zoom in/out or reposition the map, a new satellite image is fetched. This uses the Terraserver WMS which doesn't suffer from the cross UTM zone boundaries problem (but wouldn't be useful itself as tiles due to the slow fetch times).

Anyway, you can get the bookmarklet from my Google Maps wiki page. And here's a little screen capture showing the mall in DC:

(07:55) [/Maps] #

All your Google Maps belong to us

Stayed up way to late, but it was worth it. I've managed to load my own GPS trails onto the Google Maps interface. Moo haaa haaa...

Click on the screen cap for a larger version and eventually details...

(22:00) [/Maps] #

GDrive: Driving Google Maps

Here's an updated set of bookmarklets to "drive" the Google Maps driving directions. Just follow these steps:

1. Save the following links to your bookmark bar: GDrive: start GDrive: stop GDrive: reset
2. Bring up some driving directions. For example Boston to New York
3. Zoom to a comfortable level. Lower is generally more fun to watch.
4. Click "GDrive: start" and you're off. You can stop and re-start the trip. The speed is set by your current zoom level.

Have fun!

And more info can be found here on Google Maps Hacking and Bookmarklets

Update: Added the walking man icon from the above link and pegged the speed at the current zoom level.
(10:43) [/Maps] #

Google Maps

Holy cool. If you haven't seen this already, go check out Google Maps. It's still in beta, but already provides a seriously nice interface (maps as big as your screen, smooth scrolling, turn-by-turn details on directions, keyboard short-cuts, do-what-I-mean searchs, and more). On top of that there are many opportunities for playing with the data.

A good collection of how-it-works details can be found onas simple as possible, but no simpler. So far, I've written Python scripts to pull down titles based on lat/lon/zoom, download driving directions and then parse out the route to upload to my GPS. And check out these little bookmarklets found in the comments of the link above: follow route or follow fast (only tested on OS X Firefox. To use, drag to your tool bar then click on one while looking at a directions map zoomed way in. No way to cancel before the end yet)

So many things to play with!

Update: Modified the bookmarklet so that the starting marker now moves along with the route: follow route w/marker (starting to drag down my poor little Mac's CPU. probably will work much better on a younger-than-3-year-old computer)
(06:39) [/Maps] #

The Fells

Finally made it over to the Middlesex Fells Reservation for some mountain biking on Saturday. Click on the image below to see the whole route:

Oh, and here is an elevation/speed profile of the trip:

And if you would like to create maps and graphs like these, just head on over to GPS Visualizer
(20:08) [/Maps] #

Eye in the sky

Cool! The City of Cambridge GIS has high resolution aerial images of the city. The detail to the left is of my car on April 17th, 2003 (presumably early in the morning before I went to work?). "Photo resolution is 3 inch per pixel"... Very cool. See the whole thing here.
(11:25) [/Maps] #