Soft Machine³ - Tech

User Map Announcement and Invitation to Collaborate (POPOS in San Francisco)

richardwalker — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 05:44:02 +0000

There is a “public open space” movement gaining traction of late in San Francisco. POPOS stands for “Privately Owned Public Open Space” which is sometimes agreed to by a private developer in exchange for zoning variances. In other cases, businesses sacrifice street parking spots to create mini-parks, “snippets,” outdoor tables and benches, mini sculpture gardens, and the like.

Unfortunately it seems once the large construction projects are completed, the agreed-upon public access is kept rather secret, with poor or no signage. I plan on making at least two types of map to counter that cynical thrend.

“What? We have to allow poor people into our luxury highrise? Get me the Mayor’s secretary NOW.”

Please contact me if you would like to collaborate in any way, or offer your own tips about hidden San Francisco gems. I will be doing the “Street View / Google Maps” flavor first, and then the openstreetmap.org flavor, which will have a bit of a learning curve before I get started.

As always, my intent is to contribute this information to the public domain, for any use whatever, forever.

I will not be trying to sell an iPhone app based on a teaser, as it seems spur.org has done. They produced the attached .pdf, which of course contains no links, and seems somewhat incomplete <sarcasm>which I’m sure is unintended.</sarcasm>

You can find it easily by searching for POPOS.

In a recent team building outing at work, we went on something called the “real SF tour.” While I can’t recommend it without reservation, if you can book a tour with the founder, I’d encourage you to do so. If you are prepared to traipse all over the city for the entire day, that is. Avoid the rather green guides “in training” who need more experience and knowledge of San Francisco. Our guide did not impress me with his constant citing of celebrity gossip (Danielle Steele’s house!) and which Burbank television shows featured which done-to-death six victorian houses <yawn.>

One of the best aspects of the tour was visiting lesser-known alleys, stairways, walkways, tunnels, and rooftops.

Photos taken from One Kearny building’s rooftop, not included in the attached list of POPOS.

Enter here on the first block of Geary Street during weekday business hours.

Inform the guard you are visiting the rooftop, proceed to the elevator and press the highest number. Enjoy the view, eat your lunch or sunbathe weather permitting.

More to come!

Embarcadero Center - Google Maps issues and problems a year later

richardwalker — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:51:29 +0000

Previously: Embarcadero Center - Google Maps issues and problems

Previously: Correcting and improving Google maps (Embarcadero, Osha Thai, Waterbar)

All major issues are now fixed. Yay!

Click to go to Google Map view

There was one bad marker location, the D marker below, which showed up on a search for One Emarcadero Center. I’ll let someone else fix it; I’m quite finished with this project.

Click to go to Google Map view

Embarcadero Center - Google Maps issues and problems

richardwalker — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:00:46 +0000

Update: Two Embarcadero Center officially dubbed “Chevy’s Fresh Mex Center”

Update: “Reported a problem” to Google on this item and this too, first in my list.

Previously: Correcting and improving Google maps (Embarcadero, Osha Thai, Waterbar)

For the Embarcadero neighborhood in San Francisco, all “user contributed” edits need to be moderated. That is not the issue. Overall features and UI design are what is at issue here. That includes how markers, labels, and addresses are handled, and what is editable, what is not, and what can reasonably be expected of “user contribution.”

Duplicate entries abound, but aren’t easily corrected. Embarcadero One through Five are not clearly marked. Many visible businesses have the markers in the wrong place. The very definition of where the marker goes is ambiguous — “place the marker at the entrance” — does not mention automobile or pedestrian entrance. I have a big problem with the 5 Embarcadero Center marker that is five blocks North (outside this view), and the difficulty in managing duplicates. I’m certainly done trying to “edit” these issues into submission. I will however point Google at this map, reporting it as “a problem.”

Here is the map overview. I had to remove the lavender polygon on mine because it occludes mouse clicks. Here are screen captures of Google’s and my map, click to go there.

Business (postal) addresses not very useful here. Street view needs a golf-cart size vehicle for the “pedestrian view,” straght down the center pedestrian corridor from One to Four. Note that some key improvements were made, and here you can see that Commercial alley is the pedestrian route. Street view doesn’t go inside but it does let you “advance” one block at a time, sort of like a “teleport.”

View One Embarcadero Center - pedestrian and parking entrance in a larger map

Budget rent-a-car’s “address” is Five Embarcadero Center, which no-one knows is actually the Hyatt. regardless, the “entrance” to Five Embarcadero Center is… the Hyatt front door, isn’t it? That would work for both cars and pedestrians. But no, the Budget marker is on the divider at Sacramento and Drumm, looking toward Three, and no mention of the valet.

On my first visit to Budget Rent-a-car, I was at Justin Herman Plaza and was directed by Google Maps to Mission St. west, then Main to Market to Drumm. That was before “walking directions.” Here I show how walking directions have improved a lot, but the stupid 5 Embarcadero marker has the wrong location but the right zip code. You have to pick the one with the wrong zip code or you will be sorry. There are two of them, one with “5” and one with “Five.” At this point I don’t know if Google Maps searches for Marker titles or addresses, but it seems OK if you have a single “Five Embarcadero Center” marker with the correct information. It’s the bad markers and wrong zip codes and duplicate entries that conspire against finding one’s way to the Budget counter.

Apparently the Hyatt marker occludes the Five Embarcadero marker, which follows from what I’m seeing: Markers with the exact same address and location hide one another, and there’s only one winner. So, looking at the map you will never see “5 Embarcadero Center.” You have to search for it and select the marker. Side note: I will henceforth call Two Embarcadero Center “Chevy’s Fresh Mex Center” after the long-closed (and demolished) restaurant that prevents the Two Embarcadero Center label from being seen. Even more amusing, this would be fixed by moving the marker for a venue which is long gone. This is the sort of “edit” that I decline to make, since it requires the moderator understand the bigger picture.

My actual destination, the Budget counter, was in the Hyatt lobby (it is now on the street level just behind the main entrance.) I will probably notify Budget that they also need to direct first-time customers better. Either way, the only good Google Maps solution to these problems is to use the marker position I suggest, or make an exception to the description so first-time visitors don’t drive (or walk) around looking for a sign that doesn’t exist. Why is it so difficult to understand that directions to a rental car company are most useful for people who are picking up a car? In other words, how can one get to the effing COUNTER assuming one does not ALREADY HAVE A CAR, which is why ONE IS GOING TO RENT A CAR. It’s fortunate that there is a solution at all, which is the straight-line vector from the street view closest to the valet drop-off to (approximately) the counter, which passes through the Hyatt front entrance.

I defy anyone to explain to me why the definition of where a Marker goes seems to 1) assume one is driving 2) be completely useless for 99.99% of first-time visitors to the Embarcadero Center. If the definition of “Marker” is the automobile entrance, then almost all the markers will pile up around the parking garage entrances. If “Marker” is “entrance of location” then someone has a lot of ‘splainin to to. And if the address is “One Embarcadero Center” there are many entrances, some for the complex, some for access to elevators, and others are individual doors for businesses giving out onto the street, or inside the center. I don’t believe Google has a good solution for this, mostly because we Americans are car freaks and they (Googlers) are too in love with Street View.

Bing maps does do labels better: Bird’s eye view and map view all have One through Four properly labelled. Bird’s eye view can be rotated. User contributions can be enabled and even “subscribed to.”

Let’s also not forget that The Embarcadero is a divided road just to the east. “5 The Embarcadero Center” is very evil. So is “5 Embarcadero”. Did I mention that there are very few addresses on The Embarcadero? Yes, they are piers mostly, but not consecutive no no no. Odd numbers going North of the Ferry building, even numbers going south. Unfortunately, often “Pier 1, The Embarcadero” gets turned into “1 The Embarcadero” which is perhaps why I’m seeing some usage of “1 Pier.” We don’t make it easy, certainly. Pity the tourists!

View Embarcadero Center - Google Maps issues and problems in a larger map

Mondragó Portopetro y Santanyí, Mallorca ES

richardwalker — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 16:13:22 +0000

It seems there was a small development boom recently. Except for Sa Rapita toward the end, this part of the island still hasn’t been overdeveloped or ruined.

View Mondragó Portopetro y Santanyí, Mallorca ES in a larger map

Theres an ugly bit of development to the East so I’ll just look at the Mediterranean

This part of the island has lots and lots of this. I love it. I found a finca over here. Maybe they’ll let me camp out for a night. I’ll pretend to be lost or mugged or displaced by greedy hoteliers. I should bring Ensaimadas for them though, the big ones.

Bantry & Glandore, West Cork, Ireland - Street view

richardwalker — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:36:32 +0000

View West Cork, Ireland - Street view in a larger map

Kells, Co. Kerry, Republic of Ireland - Street view

richardwalker — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 04:35:06 +0000

Street view has arrived on the Emerald Isle. Brilliant!

View Kells, Co. Kerry, Republic of Ireland - Street view in a larger map

Whistler & beyond, BC - Google Maps tour tips & tricks part 1

richardwalker — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:22:50 +0000

Map & view config, sharing, embedding. Modes & features, but not create/edit map

Tips:

map item info “balloons” invisible in Street View
exit Street View: “x” in upper right of SV window
Edit Tools: hand, placemark, line/shape
Street View flavors: max view, corner, split view
only Split View flavor enables Edit Tools

Let’s start on the “Sea To Sky Hwy” in British Columbia. It’s quite spectacular. This is a custom map view that can be embedded live on a website. Click “Link” in the upper right and then “Customize and preview embedded map.” Many people didn’t realize how powerful the map embeds are. I can have multiple live embeds in a blog post, that even survive RSS syndication. Don’t use more than 1 or 2 live embeds at once — but they can be part of a larger set of maps such as this. Earth View maps can be embedded as well. This link pops you into “pretty” street view mode; we will be heading NE on the Sea To Sky Hwy.

View Whistler & beyond, BC - Google Maps tour, tips & tricks in a larger map

Wednesday, August 4, 2010 (busy day)

richardwalker — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:49:10 +0000

Today I

discovered I’m a patent holder (named in a patent granted to Quark)
chatted with a friend about job #1
spoke on the phone twice about job #2
worked with Chuck Falzone to Alert Google about a Google Alert bug
marked the passing of Google Wave
was served what looked like a Google Profile pop-up video ad (for Google TV)
was invited to a LinkedIn Group, on accept noticed real-time updates & other innovations
discussed videos about mathematics, physics, Feynman, N-dimensions
continued yesterday’s thread about Iran’s ban on the teaching or playing of music
spotted a suspicious search result for RDF TV: top result is RFD TV
sent out a hot tip RE above to media pals, hope Richard Dawkins Foundation may be notified

I’m going to give myself a reward

Google Bike

Google Maps: Banana Rd, Montecito, CA

richardwalker — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:19:29 +0000

I spent an idyllic few years on Banana Road in the late 1960s. I found it, sort of, on Google Maps. I outlined a few interesting facts, described the problem, and within a day received:

Hi Richard,

Your Google Maps problem report has been reviewed, and you were right! We’ll update the map soon and email you when you can see the change.

Report history
Problem ID: E6C8-0361-6A7B-E663

Your report: Banana Rd is not here. Please refer to my “user map” about it. It’s a tricky case. Pardon my dramatic use of flames. http://goo.gl/maps/rgq9

—
Thanks for your help,
The Google Maps team

‘

The image is linked to my User Map, which is also embedded live after it. The push-pins show (with Street View) the mailboxes and entrance, the flames are the burned houses. The red line marks the road and gives an overview:

Banana Rd is a “private road” so the addresses (732 to 742) are on Coyote Rd, where the mailboxes are. Starting East, it makes a sharp left, goes uphill and dead ends. Tragically, all of the houses on Banana Rd burned down in the Tea Fire of 2008, including 736 Coyote Rd, the only “old” house to survive all fires from the 1960s until 2008.

It’s very sad that the only remaining friend of the family from the 1960s was burned out after holding on so tenaciously all these years. 736 Coyote came close to burning a few times before but was saved, by the owners, not the fire department. It was probably one of the last houses with an authentic “Mountain Drive” architecture and aesthetic. Now the area is largely “imitation Mediterranean” if you will.

View Banana Rd, Montecito, CA 93108 in a larger map

742 Coyote Rd, circa 1970

West Marin, CA - Street view

richardwalker — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 23:34:56 +0000

A summer beach Street view trip to West Marin county, in Northern California.

View West Marin, CA - Steet view in a larger map

View West Marin, CA - Street view in a larger map

Seeks help with photobomb

richardwalker — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:25:36 +0000

I want to

this Scottish pixie and Internet cutie

Peter Saveless, owner and founding member of Smashable magazine.

Google street view al Mediterraneo, Andratx, Mallorca

richardwalker — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:43:33 +0000

View Andratx, Mallorca ES - Street View al Mediterraneo in a larger map

Vista de Calle y playa aquí. Palma por allá.

View Andratx, Mallorca ES - Street View al Mediterraneo in a larger map

Vista de Calle y puerto aquí.

View Andratx, Mallorca ES - Street View al Mediterraneo in a larger map

Siéntese, por favor.

Stanford Course CS106A Programming Methodology (28 lectures)

richardwalker — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 04:44:34 +0000

Stanford University posted the complete lecture series CS106A on YouTube last year.

Professor Mehran Sahami of the Computer Science Department is very popular on YouTube, judging from the comments and the remarkable number of views, upwards of 250,000 for the first lecture. The first lecture is mostly administrative, the course material beginning toward the end, around the 44:00 minute mark.

CS106A is an Introduction to the engineering of computer applications emphasizing modern software engineering principles: object-oriented design, decomposition, encapsulation, abstraction, and testing. Uses the Java programming language. Emphasis is on good programming style and the built-in facilities of the Java language.

CS106A at Stanford Unversity

Stanford Center for Professional Development

Stanford University Channel on YouTube

Buzzing about OpenID (thanks Mahendra)

richardwalker — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:45:17 +0000

Yesterday, Mahendra shared this item from Gina Trapani, about OpenID, and a conversation ensued.

How to Set Up OpenID on Your Own Domain - Smarterware

For some reason I was under the mistaken impression that setting up an OpenID on my own domain, ginatrapani.org, would be a big hassle: that I’d have to host my own OpenID server software and that it would take all sorts of installation and maintenance BS to do so. I feel strongly about owning my identity online, mapping it to my nameplate domain, and actively choosing an authorizing party inst…

Rob Gordon - I don’t get this. I don’t even see a registration system on her domain - it is just a blog. I think there is much more to it than this.

Richard Walker - @Rob it’s quite simple, Google is still providing the OpenId machinery, but her identity URL is now her own site, not her Google profile URL. She is not an OpenId provider, hence doesn’t need to host the machinery.

Rob Gordon - Hi Richard - I’m sorry, I still don’t get it - what does she need an “identity url” for, if there is nothing to log in to? I would like to put OpenID on one of my sites, where there is a registration system and a secured login - for example www.caltrade.com/community - but I don’t see how two lines of code can accomplish that.

Mahendra Palsule - Rob, I think what the post describes is how to set up your own Open ID that you can use to login to other websites, where the identity url of your login will point to your own domain.

What you are looking for is a way to let visitors to your site use Open ID as an authentication mechanism.

Richard Walker - They wouldn’t. What you are talking about is the “hassle” of being a provider. For those who don’t want the “hassle” and responsibility of being a provider, this is one way to use another provider but have her “identity URL” be ginatrapani.org . In other words, she would still use “log in with Google” but no-one would know that, and hyperlinks would take you to her site, not her google profile.

All providers have to deal with security and maintenance and costs. Two lines of code certainly do NOT do that :)

You should clarify what you mean by “put OpenID on….” If you mean you want to support OpenID via other providers [log in with Google], that’s one thing. If you want the account profiles like caltrade.com/useraccount to be OpenID URLs themselves, you need to be a provider, I think.

This would be a great question for Stack Overflow, you know why? They ONLY support OpenID by other providers! See here: http://stackoverflow.com/users/login

Rob Gordon - Ok guys, I get it now. Thank you.

Mahendra Palsule - Thanks, Richard :)

Rob Gordon - Richard - you must have edited your post after I read it. I do want to add open ID to my sites - for example this one I am building: www.TradeMatch.us - but it will likely require that I buy a mod, and I don’t have much money now. You seem to know quite a bit about this - what do you do?

Mark Essel - There are open source options Rob. You shouldn’t have to buy anything. Hit up a search on openid authentication in your favorite language

[time passes…]

Richard Walker - @Rob Yes, I understand, not really, it depends. Thanks @Mark.. Your welcome, @Mahendra!

@Rob Highly recommended: http://www.twit.tv/twig47 This Week in Google from 2 days ago, Messina Trapani & Laporte hash out OpenId OAuth in detail.

Rob Gordon - Thanks Richard - I will check this out. I really need to get this working as I think it is one of the reasons I am not getting traction on some of my sites. I’m using an open source php script and will also try to contact some of the developers to see if they have any proposed solutions.

Richard Walker - You’re welcome, Rob. The days of each service providing user names, accounts and logins are over I think. Which is great, because security guidelines insist we use $ecUr3 passwords and change them frequently. Do that for a few hundred services and tell me how much time you have left in the day.

You should log in to Stack Overflow because they let you have multiple OpenIDs and warn you when you’ve made a mistake. That’s the new problem… remembering which OpenID provider you used last.

Your model should probably be recast to CALTRADE/urlhash where urlhash is the authenticated ID of one of your users. You can map your old usernames CALTRADE/user to the new way on rollout (first login since change.)

In short: even though you don’t provide “account logins”, you can have authenticated users, and store user information. There’s no artificial user namespace, there isn’t a “land grab,” you don’t have to worry about user account ID security, and people don’t have to remember umpteen user names and passwords.

Here is my SO profile: http://stackoverflow.com/users/44509/reechard I think you understand now why this is appealing: anyone can ask/answer questions on SO, they just need to provide ID via Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.

@Mahendra I’d like to capture this conversation onto my blog, even though it happened under your “share.” Thanks in advance?

Google Maps: View of Glen Canyon bridge (satellite images 3D models and street view)

richardwalker — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:15:13 +0000

The Earth view of the Glen Canyon bridge shows how the combination of satellite images and 3D “Earth” models work together. The satellite view can’t see underneath the bridge, and the 3D model of the bridge can’t repair the illusion that the road drops down the canyon walls and hugs the ground.

View Little Colorado (Grand Canyon) Tour in a larger map

Unfortunately, the “street-view” vehicle doesn’t dynamically adapt to its context; it would be appropriate to raise the camera 10 or 20 feet here so as to get a clear view of the canyon. The scarcity of roads and the scarcity of “interesting views” from the road do suggest a different approach for mapping places like this. One wonders whether it’s desirable (and practical) for the vehicle operator to make a stop, get out and “bicycle-view” or “backpack-view” the pedestrian bridge seen here.

View Little Colorado (Grand Canyon) Tour in a larger map