I tried importing my route and overlaying it into Google Maps all before 7 am!! Apparently this stuff gets me so excited I can’t sleep at night.

The GPS Visualizer, while great for Google Earth, doesn’t do the Google Map view the way I like it. It has plenty of options (too many?) and all their icons and self-promotion stuff is hidden in their code on their server. I spent some cleaning it up, but now I can’t get the Google Map Types to show properly – street view, satellite, etc. Don’t know what I’m doing, and besides, I don’t want GPS Visualizer so I don’t want to spend too much time fixing it. I just want the points/coordinates from my GPS, not a whole application based on their web server! I’ll be looking elsewhere.. but glad to see it actually works. Here’s what I came up with so far-

Terrain Test

I can probably embed it directly into my blog but I didn’t feel like messing with iframes so there it is, on a separate page. Terrain View is sweet though… I can definitely make use of it on my website… and provide free downloadable .gpx files!! Who does that?? NO ONE. Of course, not too many people have handheld GPS systems yet.. but when they do, I can say I was so far ahead of my time, and a trendsetter : )

Isn’t this such a relief to be reading about hiking instead of brewpubs all the time?? Haha.

With snow showers in the forecast, we canceled our plans to go camping last weekend and thus saved ourselves from being trapped inside the tent due to a frozen zipper..

So instead I worked on my website a bit, broke my website, and fixed it again. Something about a Fatal Error and being caught in an SQL Infinite Loop. Mmm, such nerdery : ) Then afterwards, I came up with a design for Craig’s website… which may or may not launch by 2046.

And as promised, the map on the main page has been replaced with Google Maps. I think it’s working ok. In fact, it’s better than a plain Google Mashup because those brewpubs were plotted using the Yahoo! Geocoding API. Whatever algorithm they use, Yahoo! plots them all on the correct side of the road! NEAT!!

You know what else is NEAT? I’m off to the Apple Store on Black Friday!!! An iPhone, perhaps?? Mwahahaha.

Working hard! I collected addresses for my brewpubs thinking Google Maps will geocode them for me, but their tutorial called for lat/longs. So.. lat/longs… a quick search brought me to Batch Geocode. Just copy/paste a tab delimited file (mine was created in Google Spreadsheet – free stuff!) and they’ll provide lat/longs for each address. Not only that, a KML was provided!!

KMLs can easily be imported into Google Earth. Go to Add -> Network Link -> then browse to your KML file. Download brewpubs by right-clicking and ‘Save Target As’.

And voila! This is what you get. Currently there are 96 brewpubs in my database that are all plotted properly.

The beauty, of course, is that everything is Open Source, Open API, FREE!! You can try this with any data, your own personal address book? Why? Umm, because you can…?

Anyway, I keep getting sidetracked with Google Earth. My goal is to have this completed for Google Maps by next weekend if Guitar Hero doesn’t get in my way : )

I go wherever the GeoServer tutorial takes me and it took me to Google Earth rather than Google Maps. No biggie, but I’m all confused now. Which direction do I want to go? Offer both? Because I’m that awesome?

Here’s the extremely simple Google Earth mashup that was done after an infinitely more difficult install of GeoServer and setting my 3 year old Mac into a server. I think I need a new Mac, just ’cause.

With a basic shapefile of the states, I was able to stylize it with a pinkish tint and label each state with its FIPS code. I should point out that Pennsylvania’s State FIPS code is 42 – the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Anyway, if it’s this simple to overlay shapefiles onto Google Earth……..

Ok, trying to act a little more ‘professional’ here. No talks of Guitar Hero and Wii Play.. did I mention I’m getting the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games soon? And and, Super Mario Galaxy.. and Super Smash Bros. Brawl?? Because Craig wants to play, not because I want them… nooo….

Sorry. Maps. That’s what I’m here to talk about. I signed up for a Google Maps API Key, meaning I can plot my brewpubs there. And potentially hiking trails as well. But also, I’m looking into GeoServer. From their website:

“GeoServer aspires to be the Apache of spatial data sharing, by providing an open source, freely available implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC) Web Feature Service (WFS) and Web Map Service (WMS) specifications. We hope to enable greater geographic interoperability by enforcing OGC standards and lowering the barriers to entry for geographic data providers interested in sharing their data.”

Sounds cool and it should allow me to overlay any sort of data on my Google Map. Topography possibly? Contours? Hikers love that, I hear.

So while I try to figure out this GeoServer (I’m stuck on the install!!), take a look at my Google Map. I umm, created a red border, zoomed in and centered it on my apartment, and set the default view to Satellite. Pretty rural out here. There are COWS everywhere, and they stink too.