[meteorite-list] Simple mapping software? (A little OT)

From: mexicodoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:04:38 -0600
Message-ID: <004301c853dd$2e047120$4001a8c0_at_MICASA>

Hi Mark, Marco, and others who enjoyed the Parker Bros. Napoleonic "Risk"
game as kids*,

Been playing around with this "DIY Map" software (macromedia based) since
Mark first posted. I think I like the Meteorite bulletin - USGS Google
Earth interface better, and would encourage you to check into the features
of Google Earth allowing you to do 'kewl' stuff.

But this DIY Map would do the trick for putting your collection on-line
impressively, or taking the results in screen capture stills. The reason
Wold Cottage is in the Sea is because I used the coordinates of the USGS-MB
site, and Wold is incorrectly listed as an eastern longitude on that site
(Dr. Grossman...sorry to bother you if you could change that to west).

The Map is zoomable, lat/lon coordinate friendly and icon friendly for a
cute meteorite for example and changes tone as you mouse over.

http://www.glorietamountain.com/

I made an example for the list's viewing pleasure with all of the witnessed
falls recorded in the UK and Ireland (link above). I colored the countries,
put a yellow dot at the coordinates of each witnessed fall, and furthermore
sized the dot based on the TKW. A sort of recovered meteorite population
density concept for anyone who wants to cruise to Great Britian on holiday
and pick up a few meteorites laying around. When you scroll over the dot I
made it say the location and the fall year. I made it clickable so
cursoring over the individual countries identifies the country, and clicking
on them zooms in on the country. You can take over the whole world nicely
with you meteorite collection, but the UK/Ireland was enough for me this
afternoon.

My attempt was quick and I'm not a programmer, so if I dedicated more time
it could have had all kinds of bells and whistles into this, like cursor
over the world and have a link on each dot opening the MB-USGS database
page, my pictures, cutie meteorite icons, etc. Or I could have done it to
help IMCA members worldwide hook up with the masses ... just kidding.
http://www.glorietamountain.com/

Just it is a terribly unfriendly interface - but it works superbly and is
extremely powerful, not to mention it's generously free for all kinds of
use. Lets you color countries and puts lots of things in them and can do
coordinates and the zooming/interactive functions are great. Note the maps
can even be resized. Price is right - free...and if you want to invest the
time in cutting, pasting and configuring the files as required, it really is
powerful and results are very professional and multilevel (states,
countries, regions). Also can manages lat/lon to some degree if you have
the patience to figure it out looks like you will be rewarded with great
results.

http://drupal.org/project/diymap

Other than this sort of software, if you want to do better than Excel, MS
Access (with Microsoft Offie professional) makes real professional databases
where you can link pictures and all kinds of customized queries (it is a
great tool for real estate listings and photo employee databases).

Best wishes, Doug
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_(game)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marco Langbroek" <marco.langbroek at wanadoo.nl>
To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 7:51 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Simple mapping software? (A little OT)


> Hi Mark,
>
> Browse around a bit on http://www.sourceforge.net which is a well known
> large repository of open source software for all kinds of things. There is
> certainly mapping software on there (search with keywords like "map"
> and/or "gps" I suggest).
>
> - Marco
>
> -----
> Dr Marco Langbroek
> Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)
>
> e-mail: meteorites at dmsweb.org
> DMS website: http://www.dmsweb.org
> private website: http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
> -----
>
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Received on Thu 10 Jan 2008 06:04:38 PM PST