Carto 411

New Posts??

2009-05-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

So I realized that I haven't posted any cool maps lately about some of our topics that we discussed in class. Though I have researched many maps, I have not posted any. So here are a few neat maps that I have found!

This is a really interesting map about the the Mexican Drug War by the Las Angeles Times.
A simple button map of the Civil War that produces images when they are clicked.
Here is a map, while very boring, that could have been atleast 2x better if they were to have shape tweened the progression of both sides of the Korean War.
Here is another Civil War map and they use a panning camera for there spash page's video.
While I was not able to view this interactive map, it looked like a good flash map from PBS on the Korean War.
And for my final map, I found an interesting map using google earth and how they used the pinpoints to show where the different violence zones are in the world.

Final Project- Top 10 Langues Spoken in the World

2009-05-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

Final Project

My final project is complete! After hours of working on it I finally cranked out a finished product. I wanted to produce a map that would be interactive and would show where each language was spoken and I also wanted to figure out how to show more information about that language. My first idea was being able to make buttons that would show the land area and information when clicked. The information would show up at the bottom and the land area over the map. The problem I ran into was the fact that I could not figure out how to have two separate graphics show up with one button, and I also couldn't figure out how to get the land colorings to show up with the buttons by way of scripting. It was just too complicated. So I went old fashion and used the check boxes approach and roll over affects. Everything went flawless! With a lot of hours of work and focus, I was able to create a smooth interactive map. Enjoy!

^Lab 10^

2009-04-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Banda Aceh Indonesia was hit by a major tsunami the day after Christmas in 2004, December 26. Here are two shots, before and after, of the change in land, homes, rice patties, etc.

June 23, 2004

December 28, 2004

+Cartogram+

2009-04-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

In my search for example maps on my final project, languages of the world, I came across a map that is an example of this weeks topic: cartograms. I like this map particularly because it is a cartogram that gives detail or extra information; you don't always see that with a lot of cartogram maps. Enjoy!

Lab 9

2009-04-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Lab 9 (Updated content from Lab 8, for some reason my lab 8 didn't have the George Mason Campus and some other content included)

Lab 9 was using Google Sketchup as a tool for adding 3d content to Google Earth, or other GIS material. I enjoyed it but I did run into a few problems such as trying to get the buildings to lay flat against the ground when pushing and pulling the buildings and I couldnt quite figure out how to get it right. But over all I really like sketchup, and I feel like it is a huge additive to the GIS world.

<"Lab8">

2009-04-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

Lab 8

So this was our first round of using Google Earth and I came across a lot of really cool things while using it. I have had experience with Google Earth before but not to this extent. This lab really felt like I was a travel agent and that I was the customer because the places I chose and the cruise route that I picked would be my dream vacation! Anyways, I had a lot of fun with it. Enjoy!

Lab 7

2009-03-26T10:34:00.001-07:00

Lab 7

Operation Barbarossa is complete!! Well, my map that is. Overall this map was a very fun map to create and even though it took a lot of trouble shooting and investment of time, I am quite pleased with the way it turned out in the end. Hope everyone enjoys it!

++HAHA LAB 6.2!+++

2009-03-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

Lab 6.2

I was determined not to let those problems beat me from the previous Lab 6. The little things ended up turning out great. The only part that I still had problems with was the shape tweening but I was able to patch it up a little but to make it look a little better so that the mistakes aren't so noticeable. Anyways, I am excited that I got it finished and looking much better than before. Enjoy!

###Lab6###

2009-03-16T16:48:00.000-07:00

Lab 6!

So Lab 6, the updated version of Lab 5, is complete. I fell in love with making this map until I created the different shapes for the beginning, middle, and then end of the map and then when I created a shape tween for the different shapes, it really screwed up. So in the middle of the video, corners of the morphing territory get twisted around and it looks a little bad. But at least it worked out in the end and it showed the gained territory. The only problem, I believe, with this video is the shape tween in the middle of the video; the basemap and the moving tanks seemed to work out really well for the most part. I had to bunch up a few tank groups and then have them split up so there would be some space to save. It was a little frustrating but for trying the shape tweening for the first time, it wasn't a bad ending. I hope to get it right the next time I have to use shape tween.

Lab5

2009-03-04T22:27:00.000-08:00

Lab5

FINALLY!!! It tool me forever just to get this up. First off, I tried to make the map pretty in illustrator before using it in flash, but for some reason I could not export the file for the life of me into a flash file. Needless to say, I just started over and had fun with it.

Map is only 1/2 complete!!!!!!!! Much more to come with Lab 6: such as getting it to not start playing right away when the screen comes up!

Anyways, enjoy!!

--%%%Maps that MOVE/MORPH!!%%%--

2009-03-02T16:52:00.000-08:00

So I decided that since I haven't posted any maps in a while on our topics in class, I might as well go ahead and post for this week and the upcoming week.

Maps that Mooooooooove!

So I couldn't find very many interesting maps where objects move. I am sure there are a ton of them out there, but they were not very google friendly. But here is one map on the oubreak of WWI.

http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/maps_outbreak.html

Maps that MORPH!
I found a interesting static map that is based on the idea of morphing the different countries based on their percentage of data in the world.
http://www.pazzobooks.com/blog.htm/?p=466

For my last examples, I think that some of the best maps out there that run smoothly when it comes to maps that morph are the mapsofwar maps.
http://mapsofwar.com/ind/american-wars.html

Enjoy!

!!!Lab 4!!!

2009-02-24T23:57:00.000-08:00

Here is my new Lab 4!!

I had only one minor problem the entire time. I enjoyed making this map a lot because I feel like these types of maps can have a little more options as far as design and making it look good. Believe it or not, the presidetial seal in the corner took the most time for me. I also fiddled around with the background of my homepage through dreamweaver. Fun stuff!!! Enjoy!

~Lab3~

2009-02-18T19:53:00.000-08:00

Lab 3!

Putting a little more interactive features in the Road to the Superbowl map was't that hard at all. The only thing that seems to not be working that well is the sound with the buttons. I dont know what is going on with it, but the sound wont play all of the time. The sound script is definately in each button, but it wont make the sound. I find that the sound sometimes works when I have my headphones in my laptop but that is it. Also, I created a play button but I couldnt figure out the right script to use so taht if you just wanted to watch it play all the way through, it would. I guess that is for a later Lab to figure out. Anways, here it is!

~---Interactive Interface Maps---~

2009-02-16T16:58:00.000-08:00

When it comes to using flash as a tool for cartography, I think of it as a tool for making maps specially with an interactive interface. Because unlike a static map, these maps can provide loads of information that flows into a nice presentation. They can be as simple as a time-line of events, within the time-line itself the user can click or go to wherever they want in time. It could be a simple scroll over a region, country or state in order for a pop-up box to display that entities data; even further it can direct us to another part of the video/presentation that shows us a whole new sets of data.

In all, a interactive map is a map that is very user friendly. It is something that lets the user go where they want to with the map in order to see trends and patterns. A few examples I have pulled from the internet will display what the capabilities are of interactive maps.

Footiemap
Footiemap is a very simple and different kind of interactive map from my perspective. This map first starts you off with the 6 continents and the different Futbol leagues in each of them. The purpose of this map is to help direct viewers to the different soccer teams websites from around the world. So when you click on a country it then takes you to a Googles maps page with the locatoin and names of the soccer teams and when you click on them you then are directed to their homepage. It is a simple map interface and that is all that it is, nothing fancy.

Population of Chinese Regions 2008
This is yet another simple interactive interface map and it is exactly what I think about when thinking of interactive maps, although it is very simple. When scrolling over the different regions of China the data in the box above the arrow changes. It is also a choropleth map that shows the density of the population by region, although there is no legend to define what each color means.

Regional U.S. Migration 2007
This is a very good example presenting the data in different types of interfaces. The first interface is a simple affective way of showing where the top places of destinations are for citizens that move to and from other states. When scrolling over the region, arrows pop up showing where the largest percent of people move to. You can also change the time frame of the data. In the second interface it is very effective for a few reasons:
1. Choropleth map that describes the states net Gain or Loss of population due to migration
2. When scrolling over a state, it connects the other two parts of the map together: The data portion of the map that displays the State's population and other important migration data; and it connects to the bar graph at the bottom of the page that shows the highest net Gain migration versus the net Loss migration. In my opinion this is an amazing interactive map.

MSNBC: Made In the USA
This is a very complete map in terms of user interface. The amount of information you can gather from this map is over the top and it is something I hope to be able to do in the near future. A time-line interface, choropleth map with scroll over features, different data sets, and there is even an audio feature to go a long with some of the historical pop-ups. This is what I think of when it comes to the complete interactive map.

So there you have it, some examples of simple maps to the very integrative user friendly maps that you could study for hours on in.

Lab2!!

2009-02-12T16:14:00.001-08:00

LAB 2
I finally got Lab 2 up and running on my website after many many many failed attempts. It is working and in good standing right now. It was a long but fun map to work on, being that Steelers is my favorite team! Enjoy!

2009-02-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

Fun Map to work on, and a great start to learning flash. I had a lot of small things that were frustrating but overall, getting it wont be to hard to get the hang of it. Uploaded as .png because of the fact that the .jpg was a little blurry. I can't wait to start something new and try out new things!

Inauguration 2009 From Above

2009-01-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

Here an awesome aerial shot really showing the mass amount of people that attended the Inauguration. Compliments of GeoEye. I read somewhere that the attendance was around 1.5 million people.

Smaller Version

2008-12-09T22:32:00.001-08:00

Final Project: CIA World Factbook Rank Order- Oil Production vs Oil Consumption

2008-12-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

My final project using the CIA World Factbook Data updated on December 4, 2008: Oil production vs Oil Consumption.

Here are some links I used to help me out with the project.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/rankorderguide.html

http://www.personal.psu.edu/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_intro.html

http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/maps

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://s3.amazonaws.com/gcaptain-s3/maritime/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/world-oil-imports-exports-movements.png&imgrefurl=http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/tag/oil/&h=370&w=500&sz=160&hl=en&start=17&um=1&usg=__tefeiuXgESPj3yb-pFEliiJeV6Q=&tbnid=jK_NgVeHj16Y9M:&tbnh=96&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dworld%2Boil%2Bmap%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX

http://www.personal.psu.edu/acr181/graphics/bivariate_map.jpg

maps.google.com

2008-11-18T05:07:00.000-08:00

Awesome Bivariate map! I love the colors used and it is actuall the same kind of bivariate that I did for my lab 10, I think it is anyways. Cant really read the legend area so yea. But i love this map.

>Lab10<

2008-11-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

So I spent an hour and a half trying to find good county data for North Carolina on the US Census web page and really couldn't find anything for some reason. I may have been looking in the wrong place. So I just decided to look somewhere else and so I figured it was only appropriate to map the 2008 election. So here it is and it is displaying where the most populous counties and the percentage of the voters from the county have voted for him. I figured it was a good way of displaying the data. Enjoy!

+++++COLOR Choropleth+++++

2008-11-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

So taking a look at the web map vs the printed map, I think that the printed version came close to the web version which I am please about. But for detailed view, the printed version definitely has a brighter color but the colors still turned out descent for my purposes. I wish it would have been darker colors, but it wasn't all that bad.

!Cowssssssss!

2008-11-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

So this turned out to be an interesting map... This was the first time that I actually created an image on illustrator (the cow) and it turned out ok i guess. But overall, I am pretty pleased with the the end view. It kind of looks like cows from outer space theme. Enjoy!

_CoLoRs_

2008-11-08T15:59:00.000-08:00

Very interesting map on where all the food is being consumed in the world... Makes you think about not wasting food...

;[{!!@#SYMBOLS'"}{+=%$

2008-11-08T15:53:00.000-08:00

Cool looking map.. It is somewhat of a symbols map.

~Choropleth~

2008-10-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

So when I started this lab I was trying to use different gray scales and I began to get really bored with different grays because all of our other labs were all in gray!!! So I decided to try the inverse of white and go for the white out effect and I ended up really liking it a lot. I had two problems with using the inverse of white and that was 1- there were two sets of where two states were both white and they had white borders so I had to use a light gray as a border line and then the second problem 2- I printed out the maps in the lab and the second to last class ended up black like the last class and so I had to re-due the colors in the scale. But other than that, I really like the inverse of colors such as this map. Enjoy!!

--Choropleth--

2008-10-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

So, I have always loved studying and analyzing Russia and this is a very interesting map really showing where the people are in Russia and can really begin to understand how a lot of Russian history just by looking at this map. Example is the whole process, within the past Soviet regime, of deporting peasants and other enemies within the Soviet Union to far away places, mostly up north towards the North Pole and also in Siberian Russia. This not only implies what kind of weather and such these people went through but really how far away from homes they had to go. This also shows how the Soviet government lost money because of how much it cost to deport these people to these locations. This is a very good, and important map.

......Dots......

2008-10-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

Very long and tedious but it was pretty neat to do. Enjoyable, didn't turn out as "Professional" as I wanted it to turn out, such as Nat Geographic, but I feel it turned out well for my first time.

Virginia, Maryland and DC Boundaries

2008-10-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the newest map that I created and there were just a few small problems that I had: getting the counties and states along with their borders to be filled with certain colors and also getting the lines to be certain colors for the whole thing. For example, in my map the state boundaries for the bottom part of Virginia is a little bit different in Maryland. I am not sure how that happened but it did. Other than that, i played with the transparency of different fill and it turned out nice.

Density!

2008-10-08T10:00:00.001-07:00

I really like this map because it has a different kind of image and look too it. I am not quite sure if this is a dot map or not, but for getting across the characteristic of population density in India, I think it definitely succeeds.

Boundaries: Middle East

2008-10-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

These are three maps of the Middle east and it shows what a drastic change occurred overtime in boundaries. The third map has been a proposed "New Middle East" map. I thought each of these maps show very good boundary skills.

Type- Harpers Ferry

2008-10-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

This was a much more interesting lab this week. I had a hard time figuring out how to cut, copy and past lines, such as roads, so that I could type on them. One other thing I had a problem with was trying to figure out how to print in gray scale, although it may just be because I have a Mac. I couldn't quite figure it out. Other than that, everything else went great!

Sniper Duels

2008-09-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

This week we learned about how to use type on a map. I thought a good example of a type map is this map on the different locations of sniper duals during WWII battle of Stalingrad. This map shows the different zones of Russia and Stalingrad and also has a well written text box explaining the history.

Mollweide Graticule!

2008-09-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Another attempt to make a map through Illustrator and it turned out to a lot of fun. There were a few minor complications but once I was on the go I was rollin!

Night and Day

2008-09-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

I found this website a while ago and fell in love with it mostly because I love maps dealing with night-time. U.S. Naval Observatory website allows you to look at different angles of the earth at different times, days, and years at a specific Lat, Long location. This map is a good example of an orthographic map.

Lab 2

2008-09-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

First time using Adobe Illustrator and I am quite pleased with the way it works.

Links

2008-09-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

National Geographic has been my favorite website/magazine on nature and the earth. When it comes to knowing the earth and every part of it, and media quality of the earth such as pictures, videos and maps they are the best.

I also put links up for the NGA (National Geospatial Intel Agency) and CIA (Central Intel Agency) because I have always had a facination with the Intel world and I always like to know where there are headed.