MapBuild - making maps is fun (and looks nice)

There are many ways to create an online map, too many to even start counting. If you are looking for the ability to copy and paste a bunch of addresses into a webpage and somehow end up with a map, however, the pickings are a little slim. Most of the websites in the past that offered this service don't give you options to style your map, but MapBuild.net does now.

Here's an example map I made to show some of the features. Yes, I'm using those beautiful watercolor map tiles again :) Go ahead and click on a marker, it gives some information as well as a picture of the item. Enjoy and happy mapping!

New Hampshire Places of Interest

Jump to full map >

Minor cosmetics

The last few days have been somewhat taxing so instead of sleeping early this evening I indulged myself in a little cosmetic work on the site. After implementing Google web fonts on several sites already, I'm convinced that it is the best combination of convenience/reliability to use alternative fonts quickly on the Web. My preferred method is to use free fonts and convert them to web formats and manually embed them, but only when time permits. For tonight, Google wins.

I chose EB Garamond for text and Open Sans for display for one particular reason, though I think the fonts do relatively well on screen: they are the only two Google web fonts that support the Unicode Vietnamese character set. Apparently, Vietnamese presents a special challenge due to the stacked nature of accent marks, which may be the reason why Google offers Vietnamese as its own character set filter while searching for fonts. Either way, I chose these fonts for now and so far it looks comfortable. I'm still smiling at using 300 weight on the headings instead of bold, it looks so clean :)

Perhaps that the most obvious change is that I increased the font size from 10.5pt to a whopping 16! Based on a couple of articles on the value of using the browser default font size and re-creating the printer's "paragraph" on the screen, I am experimenting with 16px to see how it works. I think my body width is out of proportion now, but that's a structural change that will have to wait until another day. And finally, I'm taking advantage of Blogger's built-in mobile framework with a stock template, so when the time comes for more major changes, I'm sure I'll switch to the custom mobile template and tweak it to my liking.

There it is, blogging instead of sleeping. Now I may drift in and out of consciousness at work tomorrow, but a little design dabble before bed is quite relaxing for me, and I needed it. Plus there's the feeling of accomplishment and refreshment, even after such small changes as these. For all who are keeping track, this minor cosmetic revision is version 4.1, with no foreseeable major release in the near- and semi-near future. Someday I will, though, mark my word. The crumpled-bag side bar must go.

Web 2.0 Summit Map and Wooden Laptops

Here are two awesome things I found today. First, the Web 2.0 Summit Map, which is absolutely ingenious and engaging. Click the image to navigate through the data layers of today's internet leaders.

And the second thing was a wooden laptop/chalkboard. I'm so getting one for church.

Two very random and inspiring things today - it's nice to see creativity at work, on both the digital canvas and natural medium.

The future of online mapping... is Here!

I stumbled on Blaise Aguera y Arcas' TED talk (which led to this talk) from Cameron Moll's twitter feed which opened up to me the world of Seadragon, Photosynth, and the new Bing maps.  I guess I've been neglecting Microsoft to my own detriment.
Let's look at Seadragon, which revolutionizes the concept of image browsing, allowing users to pan and zoom hi-res iamges as easily and smoothly as they do an online map.  I remember seeing an application that used the Google Maps interface to pan and zoom large photos, which I thought was really ingenious but it looked like it only garnered a niche following if that.  Now the concept has gone mainstream under Arcas' touch at MS and the result is stunning.  Here's an example of Yosemite.  You'll need Silverlight to view it, but it's worth it (and I never advocate downloading non-standard components, but this is an exception).
The future is here.  We as internet community contributors, sharing our thoughts and images and lives with a global community, are more and more able to recreate our experiences online to share with the world (and not through VR fluff which doesn't count because the idea is to escape reality in those games).  Some call it augmented reality.  I call it the reality, because that's the direction our world is heading.  

Batch IP Locator - New Home

Ok, just wanted to announce that my little project has a new home (because the other one is about to expire):

Batch IP Locator
Geocode or map multiple IP addresses - free

Batch IP Locator - Official Launch

A week or so ago, I launched the very-beta version of a new app I'm working on. Today is the "official" launch of a greatly-improved product. After a week of poring over code and markup, the back-end has been revamped, UI is more functional (and looks better, too!), and an API has been added (with documentation). Now I just need to add content. Ugh. Not what I want to do after a week of coding. If I can get homework done early I'll shoot for that at the end of this week.

Stop by and visit, and leave me your thoughts (feedback) on what needs improvement:

Batch IP Locator ~ Geocode and map multiple IP Addresses - free!

ps. I made a new twitter account for it, too. lol

Batch IP Locator - Beta!

I've been looking for a service to geocode a list of IP addresses for awhile now, but to no avail. Well, for free anyway.

I just launched my version of a Batch IP Locator this morning, it will locate a list of IP address, returning the country, city and latitude/longitude coordinates. I'm hoping to fill a hole.

Years ago, I ran into "Map Multiple Locations" which opened my eyes to the power of data plotted on a map. As cheesy as it sounds, it was really a defining moment in my life (I am starting grad school on Monday, in Geography, after all). I hope to provide a similar service.

This beta is barebones for now. There is much in store (mapping integration, JSON output for ajax calls, etc), but for now I just have to settle with I've got.

Taking Notes Helps!

An article in Pistachio today informs presenters on presenting while people are Twittering. Quite an interesting phenomenon, and this article gives a nice perspective. The author lists the reasons why Twittering during a presentation is positive, and I'd like to point out the first of these reasons. I quote from reason number 1:

The more I’m allowed to interact and play with the content the more engaged and ultimately the more learning happens.

This concept has been pounded into my head since childhood, and I always find it perfectly true in every instance. Whether I'm sitting in a class or reading the Bible or trudging through a meeting that I really don't want to be in, taking notes always - yes, always - yields strong results in the end. Here's what happens:

1. I have to listen to take notes, so I start off more engaged
2. The more I take notes, the more questions I ask what I'm hearing
3. The more questions I ask, the more I use that thing between my ears (brain?) to try and figure out the answer
4. Inevitably, after a series of questions and answers, I subconsciously start to draw the content out of the abstract and into my own ballpark
5. This is when one piece of that content takes on a life of it's own and starts to mold to fit my current situation and other, unrelated questions start to be answered by what I learned here
6. Now the meeting/presentation is over and I can hardly believe it because I feel like I just started taking notes, even though I have ten full pages

Wonderful, huh? There's nothing as enlightening as having a good note-taking session. Except maybe choosing idleness instead of taking notes, which is what I usually opt to do. :)

Do you believe in coincidence?

Is it entirely due to chance that on my way home from work yesterday, while dodging cars and trucks on my bike, my mind was drawn back to an old, dead project I've had on the shelf for a year to host user-created maps of Vietnamese restaurants, shops, doctors, etc and build a social network around such a service?

Or that as I drove to Target to drop off my wife's subscription, a break-through concept - the "missing key" as I coined it - crashed into my brain about how to bring such a service out of the mass of mashups and into a unique niche that would truly prove useful to its users by adding new place/event notifications?

Or that when I got home I searched "social mapping" and found that Google's Latitude, an update to mobile maps that will track you via cellphone and broadcast your position to your private network, would be released tomorrow (that's today)?

Or that today I routinely opened my design feeds and inadvertently stepped into a screencast featuring Mozilla's Ubiquity, which is an experiment that in-part promises to bring mashups from site-centric status to user-centric?

Or that jQuery is just so frickin' awesome that even a dense-head like me might be able to pull it off?

Do you believe in coincidence?

Cameron Moll (pronounced Mull or Mall but not Mole)

I first ran into Cameron's work several months ago when I was reading a snap2objects article on how to destroy the web 2.0 look. Little did I know who I had found! That was when I first started dabbling in actual solid web design instead of just screwing around with my blog, and since then I've seen his name pop up over and over. Today I hit the jackpot - an interview with Cameron on UIE.com. I haven't listened to it yet, but after break I plan to spend the next 29 minutes and 52 seconds listening to Spool pick Moll's brain while I calculate stats from the Nov election for work. Wonderful.

Oh, and he did a letterpress of the temple. He's so awesome.

Earlier today I found found his wife's blog, as well. Suzanne has a delightful sense of humor and made my day with her post about her boys. 4 boys. Phew.

Needless to say, I think I've found a new role model.

UPDATE 01/22/09: Lookie what I found today: Chatting with Cameron Moll on Nettuts.com

Carrot Creative - jQuery at Work

The folks over at Carrot Creative have put jQuery to good use. Great use, actually. Smooth animation, no-refresh content changes, good sense of humor (they give you directions to their office by foot, car, train or dinosaur. How funny is that? lol) all combined to yield a rather pleasant experience.

Lately, I've seen so many sites like theirs, utilizing dom manipulation to create full-fledged applications instead of merely a website, all without moving from the homepage. The first I saw was a year or so ago (can't remember the link - doh!) by a Scandinavian company where you were a little plane flying all over the site. It had cool background sound effects like you were in a terminal, to complete the ambiance. Now this concept is being applied in very creative ways to more and more sites each day (favs: nofrks, youlove.us). I wonder if it will become so widespread that in 5 years from now we'll look at it like we look at the blink tag now haha. We'll see I guess.

I'm getting an itch to redesign again... argh, gotta kick it. Back to school. Clean your house. Serve your members. But don't redesign. Maybe next year.

But then all this cool stuff will be old. :(

The Best CSS Design of 2008

Wanna see some of the best CSS designs of 2008? This site has a terrific collection of websites that use rock-solid CSS markup to break the Web 2.0 look. I love these sites - someday I will design like these people.

The Best CSS Design of 2008

Design and Developer Tips

I stumbled on a treasure trove of design feeds full of tips, tricks and tutorials about web design and development. Jon over at spyre studios shares with us the rss feeds that have helped him with his web design skills - he is a self-made artist, you know. Here it is:

160+ RSS Feeds For Web-Designers And Developers

LDS Maps = Pretty Sweet

This was awhile ago, but the Church released a new map app for finding your closest meetinghouse (aka "church"). I remember the old text-based one that they used to have, it reminded me of Oregon Trail. "You've been bit by a snake. You've found your closest meetinghouse." Actually, it was nothing like that but for some reason it makes me think of it. Either way, this app blows the old one out of the water. Link: maps.lds.org

It's exciting to me to see how much the Church has opened it's doors technologically. Open source projects and profitable freelancing have skyrocketed the number of professional programmers and web developers with excellent skills, and the Church is reaching out to that community to built its online presence. I remember when the Church revamped its homepage (not too long ago) and I thought "Woo hoo, it will be awhile before we see another change around here." Not! The newsroom, a new media player for watching conference, and the tech site - and that's just the beginning! It looks like they've got a Home Teaching/Visiting Teaching web app in the works, which is still in the draft draft draft stage and pending approval before it can even move beyond a prototype, but that's still cool! It was funny because I stumbled on that piece of news right as I was finishing up my home teaching web app for the branch. Don't know if I'll ever roll it out, but it could be useful for the younger home teachers, anyway. That, of course, includes President. :)

One last thing: Church discussions on Twitter. I just joined Twitter so I'm still figuring out what a tweet and a hashtag are, but I caught the vision while reading the article of what this could mean in the future. My twitter feed can be found here (please no stalkers please), or it can be accessed directly from this blog (the bottom sidebar tab).

Tonight I told my wife that I'm getting in touch with my geeky side as we gorged ourselves on Korean banchan and bulgogi and tofu soup. She nonchalantly replied, "That's ok, as long as you don't cheat on me." What? I didn't see that one coming. Where did that come from? Did she hear what I said? I guess she meant spending more time with the computer than with her. That could be a form of infidelity. Man, I love that woman.

Revamping the Blog - xanghe v2.0

This blog has always been an experiment. Every time I learned something new, I would try to implement it. Well, I did it again.

This new design was inspired by the Web 2.0 sites I frequent (eBay, Facebook, Trulia, etc), some sites that try to break the Web 2.0 look (W3 <MARKUP/>, a Wordpress theme, Cameron Moll's site), and of course the magic of jQuery. I don't hold a candle to those masters, but by meager imitation I hope to achieve something that is appealing to me and functional for the readers (if any).

I'm caught between contemporary design and grunge, between straight lines and organic forms, so I end up with geometric shapes with shifting opacity, all superimposed over color-rich backgrounds. I love interaction (hence the really-useless dragging in the old blog) so I've attempted to encourage visitors (even force them) to interact with the site to initiate anything - even just reading. The icon in the bottom right opens the Background Picker, which... well... picks the background. The great part about the "picker" is that it is populated live from a google spreadsheet rss feed (didn't use an AJAX call because my database is on another domain and I don't like proxies - thank goodness for JSON!), so as soon as I add more background options, the menu will repopulate on the next click without even reloading the page!!! Ok, maybe the exclamation marks are too much, but I think it's cool.

Bedtime. Now that I enjoy seeing my own blog again I should probably start posting more. Or maybe I'll just play with the sidebar tabs.