jimmyrocks's comments

jimmyrocks | 1 year ago | on: Tiny World Map

This is really cool! I’m super impressed at how quickly it loads on my phone.

Really great idea to compress the spatial data into Paths.

I would suggest using Natural Earth data instead of OSM so you could drop the ODbL license.

It’d also be really cool if you included the tool that converts the spatial data into Paths.

jimmyrocks | 3 years ago | on: Self Hosting a Google Maps Alternative with OpenStreetMap

I'm surprised I don't see more implementations caching and serving vector tiles. I know some (most?) large mapping companies do this.

I maintain a heavily used map of the US, and I found that storing data/serving in vector format seems to be the most efficient (on AWS s3 / DO spaces), and converting to raster in the browser or with a service call / lambda really opens the doors to a lot more use cases. I suspect parent can talk more about this than I can.

jimmyrocks | 5 years ago | on: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

I had a TV that did this exact same thing! Except I was given it as a color "monitor" for an Apple IIE. I would spend hours building my own antennas and spinning the fine tune knob to try to bring in far away signals.

jimmyrocks | 7 years ago | on: What OpenStreetMap can be

There is also a good buildings dataset from DRCOG that we're (OSM Colorado) importing into OSM. Reach out to us, or come to our next meetup if you're interested.

jimmyrocks | 8 years ago | on: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

In many (most?) cases it can be better than the authoritative sources. But there is also the possibility for vandalism or sloppy work.

There are established ways to combat this (peer review, data stewards, reputation scoring) and even OSM has a checkbox for further validation.

OSM will never fit every use case, but it's good to understand where it falls short and can improve.

jimmyrocks | 8 years ago | on: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

I used to work in the building with the USGS map store. It was very sad to see it close. It wasn't commercial map providers that caused it to close, it was the avilablilty of USGS topo maps online, and a faster data collection to map pipeline. You can still order maps printed on demand directly from the USGS.

jimmyrocks | 8 years ago | on: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

Thanks for posting this here! I feel like this is mostly good constructive criticism.

I have given a few talks about using OSM data in the US government and it comes down to authoritative data sources and validation. It's a great starting point, but there needs to be another layer (or two) of validation before it can be used at the enterprise level. The National Map Corps has some good examples of how this can be implemented with data stewardship.

I am also working on a few projects to take public domain data and put it into OSM. While it's useful and mostly open, it's definitely less open than the original data sources. Another issues is that as soon as someone edits the imported data, it will become less authoritative as well.

jimmyrocks | 8 years ago | on: Mapzen Shutdown

Such sad news. Mapzen has been a core component of many projects that I've worked with. They have created and supported many great products that will be missed.

They also have been a big part of supporting the GeoNYC group and helping to organize the OpenStreetMap US conferences.

Thanks for all the maps and data Mapzen!

jimmyrocks | 8 years ago | on: Most and Least Educated Cities in America

All of NJ falls within an MSA. There are 7 that cover the state: New York, Allentown/Bethlehen, Trenton/Mercer, Philadelphia, Vineland, Atlantic City, and Ocean City/Cape May.

The Trenton MSA gets a high ranking because of Princeton and the pharma companies nearby. Where Rutgers and J&J don't affect their score as much since their MSA (NYC) is so populated.

jimmyrocks | 11 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2014)

Database Developer - Denver/Lakewood, Colorado Researcher for the National Park Service

We are looking for a motivated developer who enjoys working with spatial data. This individual will lead a project intended to increase the National Park Service’s engagement with the open data community.

We use tools like: PostgreSQL, PostGIS, Node, JavaScript, and GitHub.

https://jobs.colostate.edu/postings/7513 https://github.com/nationalparkservice

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