Author Archives: scruss
Toronto Data really open
Looks like the data sets at toronto.ca/open might finally actually be open; that is, usable in a way that doesn’t bind subsequent users to impossible terms. The new licence (which unfortunately is behind a squirrelly link) basically just requires you … Continue reading
we can has street names
Pierre Béland reminded the Canadian OSM group of the GeoBase WMS, which has all the NRN road names in it. Here’s my neighbourhood’s OpenStreetMap data with the road names overlaid. Pierre Béland reminded the Canadian OSM group of the GeoBase … Continue reading
quite a bit of work to do in Toronto
Looking at the OSM Inspector for Toronto, there are still a lot of nodes that need to be remapped (or OpenStreetMap users that need to be advised) when the big licence change comes. (and yes, I blogged this just so … Continue reading
Not really getting the Azimuthal Equidistant projection right
All I really wanted to do is make a map like this: This is an Azimuthal Equidistant projection, with me at the centre (of course) and the rest of the world spread out in a fan by distance and bearing. … Continue reading
binning by angle
I was trying to sort a series of polar coordinates by compass direction: everything in the N sector, then NNE, NE, ENE, E, … This is trickier than it looks, since the North sector includes angles between 348.75° and 11.25°. … Continue reading
APRS is go!
Automatic Packet Reporting System — APRS — is rather clever. It’s a way of reporting position, status or messages via the amateur radio 2m band. Data is relayed via digipeaters, and routed to/from the internet APRS-IS system to any user … Continue reading
Drawing Eggs
When designing wind farms, you need to keep the turbines a certain distance apart from one another. If you don’t, the wakes from the turbines reduce efficiency, and the turbulence can reduce the warranted life of the machine. Typically, a … Continue reading
#mapfail
… or “トロント動物園“, as we locals purportedly call it. The This place has unverified edits legend is a bit of a giveaway. Looks like there’s been some messing about with Google Map Maker, which isn’t always the best tool for the … Continue reading
Ham Radio log to interactive OpenStreetMap
You might notice that there’s now a Ham Radio QSO Map lurking on the front page. Thanks to the WordPress OpenStreetMap plugin (which I’ve slightly abused before). Here’s a small piece of Perl which will take your ADIF log and … Continue reading
Bixi comes to Toronto!
BIXI Toronto is (nearly) here! Here are the proposed station locations: Bixi_Toronto_shp.zip (Shapefile) or Bixi_Toronto-kml_csv.zip (KML and CSV). BIXI Toronto is (nearly) here! Here are the proposed station locations: Bixi_Toronto_shp.zip (Shapefile) or Bixi_Toronto-kml_csv.zip (KML and CSV).