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A pleasing map of the French TGV network Jan. 17th, 2012 @ 01:37 pm
[info]gerald_duck
 I very much like this map of the French TGV network. (It looks nicer in 24 megapixels.)

The idea of using colour families to relate groups of lines is a good one, nicely executed, combining at-a-glance visibility of the big picture with easy access to the detail.

Sadly, it probably has significant accessibility problems for those with limited vision. /-8
Current Mood: Colourful

xkcd Nov. 14th, 2011 @ 12:50 pm
[info]magid
 Today's xkcd cartoon has an interesting comparison of map projections.

Magazines on Maps Jan. 2nd, 2011 @ 09:59 pm
[info]dewline
 I spotted a new French-language magazine that appeals to me judging by what little I understood of the content: Carto: le Monde en Cartes. Seems to be a hard-copy thing that does for francophones around the world what [info]strangemaps does on the Net for the "anglosphere".

Thought there might be some interest hereabouts...?
Current Mood: curiouscurious

Geological base maps Jul. 5th, 2010 @ 06:30 pm
[info]gerald_duck
 [info]kaberett needs to create a geological survey of a few square kilometres of the Lake District this summer. She wants to record observations in the field on paper then transcribe them to a computer somewhere less generally rugged.

To this end, she wants a series of sheets of A4 card, each printed with a National Grid kilometre square of base map. For convenience, this would be at either 1:10,000 (10cm×10cm) or 1:5,000 (20cm×20cm) scale.

She has access to the Edina Digimap OS collection, but their OS Explorer map (1:25,000) squares exploded by a factor of 2½ are pretty pixelated — and give the impression of being a re-scan from paper sheets in any case.

I've just taken a look at OS OpenData and downloaded the "OS Street View", "OS VectorMap District (Raster)" and "OS VectorMap District (Vector)" data for a specimen square: the VectorMap raster is cleaner and more detailed than Edina, but lacks paths, fences and — most crucially — contours; the StreetView is still cleaner and more detailed, and does at least have private tracks, but lacks spot heights as well as contours. So far as I can tell without a program that understands it properly, the VectorMap vector data is similar to the raster.


Do any of you know some more effective way to drive either Edina or OS OpenData? Alternatively, is there some other source of mapping data that would be more appropriate?
Current Mood: Hopeful

Netflix mapping Jan. 10th, 2010 @ 09:54 am
[info]magid
 The NY Times has some maps of Netflix queues in some metropolitan areas in the US, by ZIP (postal) code. Interesting stuff.
Other entries
» Map as index
“Rainy City Stories is an interactive literary cityscape. Click on a location in our map of Manchester to read a story or poem set there.”
Jan. 4th, 2010 @ 01:58 pm
» Projection of the sphere onto the plane
A classic problem of cartography, with some new solutions that preserve area and relative distance almost completely: discussed here.
Dec. 14th, 2009 @ 02:23 pm
» Live Shipping Maps
A rather nice mash-up using Google Maps, from the University of the Aegean,

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?level0=100



Nov. 7th, 2009 @ 12:48 pm
» BBC Berlin Wall
an interactive map showing where the Berlin Wall is 20 years after coming down

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8344662.stm



Nov. 6th, 2009 @ 09:53 pm
» 1507 Waldseemuller Map
There's a nice BBC article on the 1507 Waldseemuller map at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8328878.stm .
Oct. 28th, 2009 @ 07:25 am
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