CEO for EnGraph software
I just finished my presentation about consuming Google Maps at BarCampKC. Thanks to everybody who attended. We talked about the three different ways of using Google Maps in your applications or websites. Static Map Image API My Maps JavaScript API The slideshow is available via Google Docs or dowload the PPT The code is available for download here, make sure you change your api key ......
Lawrence is gearing up for the biggest Kansas-Missouri game since ever. A bunch of business have changed their billboards to give the undefeated Jayhawks well deserved props. I took some pictures of the billboards and put them on a Google Map mashup. Rock chalk! Hope the MU fans are looking forward to a bowl game not in January. Technorati tags: Kansas football, Lawrence KS, Google Maps ......
The Google Maps API blog talks about adding driving directions to their API. This is something that I am excited about adding to Where's Tim. I've had directions to me on my real time GPS site for a while (see the post here), but I've always just shelled out a url to maps.google.com. Now I can retain the users of that feature on my site and not have to send them away (hoping that they will come back). This is also big for the mashup "industry" as well. Visually understanding where an object resides ......
The guys over at NavXS have just released a new Windows Mobile client for their social geocoding network. Feel free to add me as a friend after you download the software. My user ID is tim@timhibbard.com and it is directly tied to data from Where's Tim. Technorati tags: NavXS, Social Geocoding, Where's Tim ......
You're going to be hearing a lot more about the Social Geocoding service, NavXS. It's MySpace meets Where's Tim. These guys do it right. They have a Windows Mobile client, a Java client, Google Maps interface and a rock solid permissions model. They also have a blog here. Technorati tags: NavXS, Social Geocoding, GPS, location sharing, Where's Tim ......
Cursor on Target (CoT) is an effort by military and governmental branches, FFRDCs (federally funded research and development corporations) and private companies to standardize an electronic portable data format to define location based data. I am the biggest geo-geek that I know, so obviously I was very interested when they contacted me about implementing their format into Where's Tim. These guys have done a great job of making a simple schema (12 required fields) that is easy to implement. I blogged ......
Check out instruction #23 on Google Maps directions from New York to Paris. Good stuff :) Technorati tags: Google Maps ......
Last night, I set up Matt Strausz of SmartStart up with Live Writer and Flickr4Writer. He has already started using it on his latest post about their Ignition Interlock device. Disclaimer - I built Matt's site a couple years ago (including the very cool "Find a shop" Google Map app) in exchange for links to Where's Tim, random car repairs and a case of beer :) Technorati tags: Matt Strausz, SmartStart of Kansas, Live Writer, Ignition Interlock ......
Where's Tim hasn't been getting much attention the last couple of months. A little bit here and there, but nothing like the Digg days of last summer. I've got several requests for information the last week or so though. Joab Jackson (who did a National Geographic story last October) is working on an article. Ronan Fitzgerald (who did an article in The Guardian) has been emailing me about the Social Geocoding studs NavXS. Davey Winder is also working on a mashup article. I'll post the links to these ......
The Google Maps API blog talks about adding support for GeoRSS enabled feeds on Google Maps. That means you can take the Where's Tim Messaging Feed and view the last 50 message people sent me on Google Maps You can also take my location feed and view it on Google Maps. Since my location feed contains Yahoo Maps, clicking on the GIcon will show a Yahoo Map on the Google Map! Technorati tags: GeoRSS, Where's Tim, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps ......
Ken Hoetmer - who has his own Where's Tim - has started a new company called Spatial North. He talks more about it on his blog. Good luck Ken! Technorati tags: Ken Hoetmer, Spatial North, Where's Tim ......
PhoneNews reports that a version of Google Maps has been released for Windows Mobile. I downloaded and played with it last night on my PPC-6700. It works really well and it integrates with your contacts list. It is interesting to note that is uses the old version of the street maps and older satellite images. Also, the final version of Window Mobile Device Center is now released. Technorati tags: Windows Mobile, Google Maps ......
Carl is driving to Colorado and wants people to watch his progress with GPS and send him text messages. Click here to see him on a Google Map and click the icon on the map once you get there to send him a text message. Technorati tags: Where's Tim, GPS, Google Maps ......
Google Maps released a new version of their street maps this morning to users of their API. This adds city boundary shading and a bunch of new streets to Lawrence, KS. They have had this version on the maps.google.com page for a while and just pushed it out to the API. Check out Where's Tim for the changes. Technorati tags: Google Maps, Where's Tim, API, Lawrence Kansas ......
This code will load the MapInfo.Application object into a listbox and display the sample US County data. It assumes your form has a listbox called listBox1 and a "using System.Reflection;". It also works in Vista! string mapName = "C:\\Program Files\\MapInfo\\Professiona... System.Type oType = System.Type.GetTypeFromProg... object o = System.Activator.CreateInst... oType.InvokeMember("do... ......
Somebody from Sprint must have read my blog post about not being able to receive text messages from Where's Tim. Either that or somebody decided that we were not sending spam through our servers. Either way, I am now getting text messages people send me on Where's Tim. I also publish these messages in a GeoRSS enabled RSS feed. Since the feed does have GeoRSS, you can even view the last 100 messages on Where's Tim. Technorati tags: Where's Tim, GeoRSS, Sprint ......
Most bloggers do some sort of self-gratuitous year-end post where they talk about all the great things they have blogged about over the last year. I tried to come up with a post like that, but I found that I only talk about Where's Tim. So instead, I thought I would pay homage to the greatest Director of Software Development that EnGraph has ever had - Kyle Archer. In no particular order, here are my top six posts from KJA this past year: EnGraph to attend n4a this summerMy Visual Studio Experience ......
Iain Martin (a student on the post graduate diploma in journalism at Cardiff University) wrote an article about the mainstreaming of geography and geotagging journalism. He talked briefly about Where's Tim and included some of my quotes on how GIS will impact various industries. He even mentioned Social Geocoding. Well, it was in a quote from me, but he still published it! He also spoke of Jerome Dobson and his concerns of loss of privacy. It's funny how we always get mentioned together in articles. ......
The GIS folks at Kansas University have put the slide decks from GIS Day 2006 online. Hopefully they will have the videos posted soon. My slide deck (in pdf) is here. Here is my wrapup post for the day. Technorati tags: GIS Day, Kansas University ......
Google Maps works by asynchronously downloading tiles of map/satellite data as you navigate around the map. Lately, I've noticed that it has been rendering the wrong tiles in Where's Tim occasionally. I've only noticed this in FireFox though. Anybody else seeing this? Technorati tags: Google Maps, Where's Tim ......
I'm working on an article for a special personal tracking issue of a magazine. It's due next Monday and I would like some other people to look it over before I submit it. If you have some spare time this Thanksgiving weekend, send me an email and I'll send you a copy to proofread. Warning, it's mostly about Where's Tim and Social Geocoding, so if you're tired of reading about that on this blog, you're probably not going to want to read this :) Technorati tags: Writing, Where's Tim, Social Geocoding ......
Matt Dunbar & Co. did a fantastic job putting together GIS day at Kansas University. My favorite part of the day was judging the student competition. Seven students gave ten minute presentations on unique uses of GIS. They showed everything from a geographic boundary of where grits are consumed (apparently South Carolina is the capital of all that is grits) to a traffic analysis of SW Douglas Country in Kansas. The winner was Lincoln Lewis. He showed how to make GIS data pretty using a suite ......
The people putting on GIS Day at Kansas University tomorrow built a Google Maps mashup showing where are the presenters and attendees are located. That's a lot of people. I hope they like listening to a .NET geek ramble on about GPS :) They are going to video record each session, so if you don't get a chance to make it (Kyle), you'll still be able to join in on the fun. They will also be posting the slide deck from each session. Technorati tags: GIS Day, Google Maps, Kansas University, GPS ......
You heard it here first. Social Geocoding is a social network with a layer of location awareness. A million little Where's Tim's running around interacting with each other with "friends list" based permissions. NavXS, Dodgeball and Loopt are all examples. Come listen to my talk at KU tomorrow if you want to learn more. Technorati tags: Where's Tim, Social Geocoding, Social Networks, NavXS, Dodgeball, Loopt, Kansas University, GIS Day ......
This bus has been parked by our office for so long, that it shows up in satellite view on Google Maps. Technorati tags: Google Maps, long term parking ......
Kansas University (right here in Lawrence, KS) puts on a Geographic Information Systems day every year. A couple months ago, Matt Dunbar contacted me and asked if I would speak about personal tracking. My talk is titled "Big Brother is on MySpace. How GPS will change our everyday lives (in a good way)" After some shameless promotion of Where's Tim and EnGraph, I plan to talk about how real time GPS can add a new dimension to social networking sites like MySpace. I also plan to talk about enhancing ......
Heartland Developers Conference 2006 in Omaha was a huge success! Joe Olson, Phil Wolfe and everybody else involved did a great job getting everything put together. Day 1: Joe Stagner did the opening keynote on Federated Logic. Basically using data sources that live anywhere on the internet with ASMX web services. He even talked a little bit about GPS and web based mapping solutions. Something that is near and dear to my heart. Next, I went to Dave Donaldson's talk on Power Programming with Attributes. ......
I've posted an article that shows how to create an Google Earth KML file by writing to the response stream. The code is for this page: http://timhibbard.com/demo/... That page creates a KML file that show Memorial Stadium in Google Earth. The code also shows how to use query strings to create a KML file for any location like this page: http://www.timhibbard.com/d... Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Read the article ......
Geo-Names has released a utility that will scan an RSS feed for geographical content and spit out a GeoRSS feed. So you can grab the RSS feed for this blog and convert it to GeoRSS. Since Where's Tim understands GeoRSS, you can view the geographical data of my feed in relation to my current location here. You can also use the same utility to spit out KML and view the data in Google Earth ......
Joab Jackson published an article in National Geographic that give a very basic introduction of GeoRSS and a couple examples of it's use. One of the examples was Where's Tim!! GeoRSS is a way to add geographic information to an RSS feed. Most generically, it is used to add a latitude / longitude point to an item. To add GeoRSS to your existing feed, add the namespace to your rss element like this: rss version="2.0" xmlns:georss="http://www.ge... xmlns:gml="http://www.openg... ......
I noticed this weekend that viewing geocoded flickr pictures on Where's Tim wasn't working quite right. It would only grab one or two pictures and I know there is over a thousand geocoded pictures in Lawrence. The code looks fine and my geocoded pictures in flickr were still there. I ran my code through flickr's api explorer and it looks like their api is returning a limited result for some reason. Maybe there is a glitch somewhere ......
I added new functionality to the FeedMap wrapper service that generates GeoRSS. You can now use the query string url= to get blogs around a specific blog. So for example if you wanted to see the blogs around my blog, use this url: http://timhibbard.com/where... You can then view that data on a more visually stimulating platform, like Where's Tim. Here's the 10 feeds closest to Jeff: http://www.timhibbard.com/w... ......
David, Steve and everybody else involved did a great job in putting this event together and keeping the chaos at an organized level!! My talk on AJAXPro went really well. 25 or so people showed up and everybody seemed to understand the power of AJAXPro and several of them told me afterwards that they had projects that could use this technology right now. I've talked before about why AJAXPro is better than XMLHttpRequest. It also had advantages over ATLAS (Microsoft's AJAX library) in that AJAXPro ......
Chandu Thota, a Microsoft MapPoint developer has a service called FeedMap. A lot of people have FeedMap badges on their blog that shows the blogs around their location. The one thing missing from this service is GeoRSS tags, so I took a look at his API and created an RSS feed with GeoRSS extensions. My service is driven by query strings. You can pass in a place, or a lat and a lon, and also an optional count like this: http://timhibbard.com/where... or this ......
GeoRSS is an extension of RSS that allows for geographic information to be associated with a blog post, an event, a gps location, a photograph or any other information where geographic information would help better describe the item. Several websites are recognizing the value of GeoRSS and are adding these extensions to their feeds. Most recently, Wordpress is using GeoRSS to add maps to their posts. One of the things that Jeff and I talked about on our roadtrip is adding GeoRSS tags to ESS. ESS, ......
It's not all the way done yet, but throw a flickr=true query string on Where's Tim and you can see what I'm working on.
Anybody want to help make the icons look not so cheap?
Today, Flickr released geocoding for photos on a Yahoo map. Hopefully, they will add GeoRSS tags to their RSS feeds so I can easily overlay pictures on Where's Tim (like I talked about earlier). As a side note. Jeff Croft and Matt Croydon have already geocoded their pictures, so Lawrence has way more geocoded pictures than any other city around. It shows that this little town has geek power :) Via TechCrunch ......
We released a new version of Where's Tim this morning that supports GeoRSS feeds. Use a georss query string with the url of the feed as the query string value like this: http://timhibbard.com/where... or you can create an xml file that contains information about GeoRSS feeds that looks like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <GeoRSSFeeds> <feed url="http://timhibbard... ......
I blogged a couple weeks ago about how Google Maps announced support of KML (location information file for Google Earth), and that the KML files that Where's Tim generates where not loading correctly. Well, sometime between now and then Google fixed the bug and now you can see my current location that was meant to be viewed in Google Earth on Google Maps!! Ok, it's not that cool for Where's Tim since it already lives in Google Maps, but it has potential for other applications. The query string in ......
I am having lunch today with Clint Batman from ThinkGeo, another GPS company out of Lawrence. They have some additional hardware that might be useful for us and maybe we do some things on Where's Tim that he might find beneficial to his products. Plus the sweet salsa at La Familia can't be beat ......
I'm heading up to Kansas City this morning to meet with Jeff and John. They are going to show me Team Foundation Server. I need to decide if we are going to switch to TFS or stick with Vault before I can start using what I learned from Raymond Lewallan on continuous integration. Watch me on Where's Tim. Or if you feel like using a super beta MapPoint ClickOnce app, try this one ......
In my last post, I talked about wanting to add GeoRSS tags to the RSS feed of the text messages people send me on Where's Tim. The first thing I need is to find out the users location based on their IP. So I wrote a class that communicates with the hostip.info API to generate a object that contains location data based on that ip. The article with the code is here: http://geekswithblogs.net/t... ......
Like Lance talked about yesterday, I added GeoRSS tags to my Where's Tim Location feed. Essentially, all I needed to do was reference the GeoRSS namespaces: xmlns:georss="http://www.ge... xmlns:gml="http://www.openg... and add the georss:point tag By adding that one little tag, I was then able to drop that RSS feed on top of mapufacture and get this. And Lance was able to mashup the RSS feed using RSSBus with a Yahoo local search and find the closest pizza place to me, and also ......
We are working on something pretty cool...stay tuned.
Yesterday, Google announced KML support in Google Maps. KML is a markup language like XML that defines data to be shown on a map. I use KML on Where's Tim to show my current location inside of Google Earth, so I was very excited...until I tried it. My KML file is an .aspx page that returns a content type of "application/vnd.google-ear... so when you click on it...it opens in Google Earth. So I put the address of my .aspx in the query string as instructed by Google and I got a "could not ......
Mike Pegg is "live blogging" his experiences at the Where 2.0 conference. He posted a bit ago about getting ready to talk at Google Geo Developer Day His location is also available on Where's Tim. It's pretty cool to see the little icon right at the Googleplex ......
Too many Google Maps mashups force the user to enter a zip code, or select a state before displaying the data to the user. This interrupts the user experience and takes away the "browsing" capabilities that Google Maps offers. This article shows how load data from XML using the Google Maps AJAX helper when the user moves the map and display only the points that are in the viewing range of the user. http://geekswithblogs.net/t... ......
This weekend, we migrated Where's Tim to ASP.net 2.0 and Google Maps API v2. We also added some "Get directions" functionality to SmartStart of Kansas Find a location page. And we just got dugg! [Where's Tim] [EnGraph] [Google Maps] [GPS] ......
Lawrence, KS got new Google satellite images the other day. Check out pictures of the EnGraph office.I haven't fully migrated Where's Tim over to the v2 of the maps API. Once I do, you will be able to see the new images on Where's Tim as well.[Google Maps] [Lawrence, KS] [Where's Tim] ......
Google Maps Mania reports about a guy that uses a camera mounted on his glasses and sends the feed to his website. Cool idea, I've been wanted to do something like that on Where's Tim and our newest client, LiveWave, does mobile streaming video over EVDO. Maybe they will hook me up!! Speaking of LiveWave, their RoverCam GPS site has been exciting the last couple of days. One of the guys put the phone on his boat and has been cruising all over the bay. [Where's Tim] [LiveWave] ......
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