|
|
New Articles:
Southern California Glider Landout Database Soaring 5-Inch Sky Robot FDM in Vacuum Gin Books Hacktastic e-bike Farnsworth Fusor Land Anchor Turchickentato Bowmaking Custom Discovery Roof Rack August, 2012 - Sierra Backpacking July 22nd, 2012 - Hiking in Santa Barbara July 15th, 2012 - Valley of Fire May 5th, 2012 - Afton Canyon April 28th, 2012 - Devils Playground Alpine Tripod Convict Creek Trail January 2012 - Mustangs January 3rd, 2012 - Heart Lake August 7th, 2011 - Kelso Dunes August 5th, 2011 - Lundy Canyon Hike August 2011, Mammoth Archery Birds in the garden June 4th, 2011 - San Gorgonio May 29th, 2011 - Sequoia National Forest April 23rd, 2011 - Living Desert April 2nd, 2011 - Death Valley March 8th, 2011 - Mountain Palm Springs February 13th, 2011 - Iron Smelt Blacksmithing November 13th, 2010 - Mojave October, 2010 - Mammoth Android September, 2010 - Mammoth September, 2010 - Duck Lake Trail Backpacking Red Iron bloom forging August 28th, 2010 - Mt. San Jacinto OSM Import: US Designated Wilderness July 25th, 2010 - Mojave Mustangs July 17th, 2010 - Mojave Exploration Bloomery furnace iron smelting Open Street Map: Mojave Project June 13th, 2010 - Mojave June 6th, 2010 - El Cajon Trails Wolf Mountain Sanctuary Carrizo Gorge March 28th, 2010 - Salton Sea March 21st, 2010 - South Main Divide March 13th, 2010 - Anza Borrego Wildflowers March 7th, 2010 - CSULB Japanese Garden February 2010 - Mammoth GeoRSS AISlib OpenStreetMap Dakota and Asha Celebrate Christmas, 2009 November 21st, 2009 - Mojave Road November 14th, 2009 - Anza Borrego Exploring The East Mojave: The Afton Canyon Area Broken flex plate Remote Image Serving Astro/night photography in Inyo National Forest Wild Mustang Sightings RSS September 26th, 2009 - Night Photography In Frazier Park Whiskey Brandy August 15th, 2009 - Catalina dive trip Astrophotography Sensornet January 24th, 2009 - Mojave Exploration July 2008 Mammoth Vacation AIS President Barack Obama! Rachel Maddow Big Geek Barack Obama April 12th, 2008 - Wildflowers and Landmarks My Grandfather's Alfa Romeo Spider March 8th, 2008 - Carrizo Plain Bridge To Nowhere High Availability October 20th, 2007 - Big Bear Camping October 22nd, 2007 - Fire Scottish Highlands, Aug 7th, 2006 Scottish Highlands, Aug 6th, 2006 August 5th, 2007 - Duck Lake Trail May 26th, 2007 - Kelso Dunes Culloden Battlefield, Aug 5th, 2006 May 20th, 2006 - Irwindale Renaissance Faire Edinburgh, Aug 4th, 2006 The Clifs of Moher, Aug 3rd, 2006 The Burren, Aug 2nd, 2006 Bunratty Castle, Aug 1st, 2006 May 5th, 2007 - Mojave Truck Audio/Data Network 2007 - Master Bath Remodel Centrum: Exit The Ring of Kerry, Jul 31st, 2006 Nikon D200 Victory in 2006! Blarney and Killarney, Jul 30th, 2006 Dublin and Cork, Jul 29th, 2006 Dublin, Jul 27th & 28th, 2006 Married! What Can I Do? April 30th, 2006 - Anza Borrego New desktop: Intel 805 D Macro Photography Jan 7th and 14th, 2006 - Hiking Whiting Ranch Hiking Engaged! Digital Photography with Linux September 5th, 2005 - Living Desert August 19th, 2005 - Mammoth Hiking and Photography July 30th, 2005 - Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary Nikon D70 Death, Fright and Photography Mmmmmm Eggs MythTV Inova T4 May 14th, 2005 - Red Rock April 2nd, 2005 - Death Valley Count Every Vote Act of 2005 Image Archiving Linear Logic ScanGuage Gentoo Linux November 6, 2004 - Mojave Super Tuesday, 2004 John Kerry Kayaking Irish Stew ImageServer Ireland, 2004 Canon A80 Camera Jul 25, 2004 - Death Valley Chronic Hiccups May 4th, 2004 Landscaping - My Front Slope Stump Pullin' Yeeee Haw! Feb 22nd, 2004 Feb 16th, 2004 PostgreSQL Logfile Analysis Spam Mountains? Desert? Jan 30th, 2004 Jan 28th, 2004 Encryption Ceiling Cargo Basket Front Bumper Version 2 Asha Exide Orbitals Land Rover Valve Jobs Spirits The Matrix: Revolutions Halloween 2003 Greg Davis CDL Linkage Ouzo Democracy Mom's Turkey Gravy Grandma's Guacamole Top Nodes Julian Pie Company DeCSS The KB1DIG 2-meter Halo Antenna Incomming searches Gardening is hard! Aug 13th, 2003 SQL and Perl Cancun 2003 Jul 9th, 2003 Aprs intelegence Jun 17th, 2003 Some People's Comments Dakota is a silly dog The Matrix: Reloaded Chris' Stage Bottle Harness April 23rd, 2003 Cracked Radiator! Black Wednesday DVD Burning Under Linux My Satellite Phone Wind! My Near-Death Experience Laser Cannon Revival Front Bumper, Version 2 SpamAssassin The Critters Dakota Milton KPC 3 Plus and HTX-252 My House Moving, moving moving... Mobile 1 Portola Hills New new house Suse Linux Database images In Truck Dr. Pepper My Favorite Toilet Kelso Dunes Desert Trips Ifulmuh Late Thoughts: Dr. Pepper Cooler 265/75-R16 Tires on a DII Linux George W. Bush Rants Driving Reservations Horses Sep 14 2002 Obsession August 17th Yukon Dives Less notifications My Custom Front Bumper Bracketless, Renamable Links Discreet Winch Welding Jul 28 2002 Day Trip My Firewall Jedi Group, my T1 and money A Bumperless Discovery! My Custom Rear Bumper Vanessa's 24th Birthday Jun 30th Dive to Long Beach Canyon PHP/PostgreSQL String Quoting Tonsillectomy, Uvulaectomy and Turbinite Reduction Searching functionality 240 Watt CO2 Laser Cannon My Workspace Dr. Pepper The Tulsa Rib Company The quality of hard disks these days Email notification of articles Email notification of comments erikburrows.com source code User Bios User Preferences Login feature Renisance Faire Jun 9, 2002 Computers hate me, and it is mutual. Star Wars Sucks! Horses, Jun 1, 2002 Land Rover Mileage Insomnia, Robin goes evil. 100 Watt Diode Laser Test Firing 1 Amateur Radio The Matrix 2001: A Space Odyssey TDI Deco Class Horses, Apr 30, 2002 APRS Movies Blackbird My Truck Batteries My Truck Vasquez Rocks The Zope Bible PSK31 Mojave Apr-12-2002 100 Watt Diode Laser The New www.erikburrows.com Hunter the Kitty Horses Geeks Yukon May-13-2001 Computers Matts Desert Pics Mojave Feb-10-2001 Mojave Apr-01-2001 Programming Languages Ironage Jul-4-2001 Mojave Jan-27-2001 Ironage Feb-03-2001 Mojave Jun-09-2001 SCUBA Jedi Group
|
|
|
|
OpenStreetMap -   2009/12/25 | Viewed 79 times this month, last update: 2009/12/25
|
| A large part of all the desert/mountain/ocean exploring I've done has been tracking where I've been, and trying to figure out where I'm going, eg: Mapping.
I've been using tons of great tools, Xastir for in-vehicle navigation, OpenMap for on-water navigation, QGIS and GoogleEarth for at-home data work and map generation, and many more.
A month or two ago, I discovered a new tool, or tool ecosystem maybe, that has been making my life better, and more interesting, ever since: OpenStreetMap!
OpenStreetMap is a database of street and geographic data, maintained in a Wikipedia-type way by people around the world. There are several web-based graphical viewers for the database, including the main OSM page, OpenCycleMap, and many more. The OSM community has developed several tools with which people can contribute to the database by fixing incorrect data, and adding new information. QGIS even has an interface into the OSM database, though right now my favorite tool to use is JOSM.
But what makes OSM so useful to me, is the many ways I can use it: On-line from my desktop, laptop or even phone, off-line on my phone via the Maverick GPS-like application, or even on my Garmin hand-held GPS device. Being able to use the exact same data set on all my navigation systems is fantastic! For instance, I can add hiking trails and off-road trails to the OSM database in the days leading up to a trip, then download the map to my GPS or phone, and use that data I just made, but with all the context of everything else in the database, not just my two or three paths! I've found the existing database to be fantastically accurate and complete, rivaling even the Garmin Topographical maps. Of course, since I can (and have) add data to OSM, it has some off-road trails and hiking trails that even Garmin doesn't know about!
Lastly, and one of the real selling points of OSM for me, is that I can replicate the entire OSM database to my home computer, setup my own web front-end, and customize it however I want. And I've done just that. I have up-to-date data for the California/Nevada area, and integrated topographical contours ala OpenCycleMap, but without throwing out some of the road and park data that they choose to not display. I then copy those maps to my phone, and now I have a fantastic map, drawn just how I want, everywhere I choose to be! Not to mention the fact that I can have nice maps on my web site, without depending on any outside service, as you can see above!
I expect to further integrate OSM into this web site, to allow for easier viewing of geo-tagged images, and even showing trip track logs. Cartographic data systems, weee!
|
Comments:
Vanessa (2009-12-27): Very cool! Let's go map some trails in Mammoth!
See also: GeoRSS, Southern California Glider Landout Database, Open Street Map: Mojave Project
permalink
|
|