OS data release in April

Tuesday, 23 March, 2010

It’s old news, but yes some OS data will be released in April. This is good news as it can only drive the innovation of “geo” applications and, perhaps more importantly, drive the linked use of base mapping with other government datasets released over at data.gov.uk. Of course, the nagging problem remains postcodes…

UK Space Agency

Tuesday, 23 March, 2010

Has a nice ring doesn’t it? Well, as of today, it formally exists, being funded by a mix of public and private monies. Good post with various erstwhile links here.

More Metro Maps

Monday, 15 March, 2010

A nice blog post comparing a variety of metro maps.

Tim Berners Lee:on government data

Monday, 15 March, 2010

Great 5 minute talk from Tim Berners-Lee on linked geodata. The driving force behind the new data.gov.uk portal, he shows some of the profound applications of geodata.

Pivot

Monday, 15 March, 2010

Another Microsoftie, Gary Flake, demoed Pivot at TED recently. Very nice example of the way tagging and hyperlinking on webapges can be expanded more widely to data exploration and mixing the two areas together. Very nice piece of visualization.

Chrome is the word

Friday, 12 March, 2010

So, a year and a half after I blogged about Chrome being released I am finally making the switch from Firefox 3.6. Firefox remains an excellent browser, certainly better the Internet Explorer and less open to exploits, but its popularity is driving greater work on its security. From the off Chrome has been lightning fast on both startup and rendering webpages, particularly heavy javascript pages. Firefox has been bogged down by its greatest success: extensions. Just load both at the same time and the difference is staggering. Firefox desparately needs a more robust extension model which means a change and driving away many extension writers. The announcement that Chrome now supports extensions caused a lot of buzz and there are now a really good selection. So much so that most of my everyday browsing needs are catered for. As ever, PortableApps offer a portable version that you can install the extensions into. Current extensions are:

AutoCopy
Bookmark Tree
BugMeNot Lite
Downloads
FlashBlock
Google Dictionary
Metro Map
Mini Google Maps
Minimize Chrome to Tray
Simple Calendar
Snake
Type ahead fine
Webpage Screenshot
Wikipedia Companion

(and for academics that use BlackBoard Chrome is an absolute must. BlackBoard is a poor piece of web software at the best of times, laden with bloat. The “new” Grade Center is a fine example of this; good facilities but painful to watch loading in to Firefox and in IE… well I gave up bothering. In Chrome it loads extremely rapidly. So Chrome is the perfect companion for BlackBoard)

UKMap makes ground

Saturday, 6 March, 2010

That’s a horrible pun! But its true.Free Our Data have a nice summary roundup of news at UKMap, most notable of which is the acceptance by Land Registry of submissions using UKMap data. That is big news. And also a growing list of clients; as Charles Arthur notes “London councils and emergency services? That’s what I think you call an inroad into OS’s market, isn’t it?”