Building simple clients for MapFish — cURL as a client

I have two previous posts on using MapFish (in this case, the GeoServer version) to allow for printing to hi-resolution PDF maps from the browser.  Here we use a command-line browser (cURL) to post our json to the MapFish service in order to retrieve our PDF. I did not keep any notes from before on making json posts to the MapFish server as a means … Continue reading Building simple clients for MapFish — cURL as a client

EcoHackNYC, version 2.0

I had the pleasure this weekend of attending EcoHackNYC for the second time.  It was a generous, brilliant, and fun group to join for a day of hacking.  Sadly, this time, as last, I had public transit issues, so I did not make it for the Friday night ignite talks.  There were a number of talks and topics; swing over to twitter and search for … Continue reading EcoHackNYC, version 2.0

Quick narrative on the distinction between leadership and power… .

Leadership vs. Power: Off topic here a bit.  I think this post will end up categorized as “other”… . A while back I met a fellow we’ll call Bob, who has spent a long time in the tech world, implementing, for example, some of the first closed circuit TVs for video feeds at a statehouse in the 1970s. As he tells the story, the closed … Continue reading Quick narrative on the distinction between leadership and power… .

Kicking the tires of PostGIS 2.0 — Testing ST_MakeValid

The feature in PostGIS 2.0 that excited me most was not topology support, raster support, or 3D functions.  Ok, raster was near the top of my list.  But what I was really excited by was the ST_MakeValid function.  Sad, isn’t it?  Lack of vision probably– excited to try to solve recurring technical snafus in a computationally inexpensive way, rather than being more excited by the … Continue reading Kicking the tires of PostGIS 2.0 — Testing ST_MakeValid

Cartography and USGS — Fake Building Footprints in PostGIS now with distance operator

Quick and fun post tonight.  Remember in USGS quads all the little building footprints that represented civilization?  We (me and my colleague John Stein) were contemplating how to pull off something similar with address points.  Here was our first attempt: It looks ok, but may be a little crude to be considered cartography (click on it to see it bigger– you’ll see those buildings don’t … Continue reading Cartography and USGS — Fake Building Footprints in PostGIS now with distance operator

G. I. O.: A Real American Hero (FOSS4G-NA)

Whew! What a conference! All the classic FOSS4G stuff was there, from why the breaks in version for PostGIS (serialization + more…) = 2.0 rather than 1.6, to “here are the new combinations of existing technology stacks”, to the “tribes” of Open Source GIS. I will confess: when I went to FOSS4G 2011 in Denver, I was a little terrified to actually meet and interact … Continue reading G. I. O.: A Real American Hero (FOSS4G-NA)