#OSGEO IRC Log - 2009-04-01

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01:45:04 sigq: osgeofeed: Ticket #350 ( enhancement created ): Private paste service at osgeo.pastebin.com <http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo/ticket/350>
13:06:08 springmeyer: Mapnik 0.6.0 is out in the wild: http://mapnik.org/news/
13:06:09 sigq: Title: Mapnik C++/Python GIS Toolkit ( at mapnik.org )
14:32:36 CIA-12: osgeo: tmitchell * r1462 /journal/volume_5/en-us/ ( 46 files in 4 dirs ): main reports submitted
14:32:37 sigq: osgeofeed: Changeset [1462]: main reports submitted <http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo/changeset/1462>
15:26:11 doa: I can the math; yet, I don't know where to find decent projection or shape files for free
15:27:59 doa: looking for vector layers of ontario
15:32:36 doa: is anybody actually here or willing to answer questions?
15:32:45 wildintellect: relax it takes time
15:33:00 wildintellect: most people are here, but also at work
15:33:47 doa: I am looking for opensource marcator projection tiles and vector layers; yet, I don't know where to start.
15:34:52 wildintellect: why mercator? you trying to match it to google or something?
15:35:59 doa: match it to google?
15:36:05 doa: I am very new to this
15:36:33 doa: I thought google used utm
15:37:27 wildintellect: google tiles in spherical mercator
15:37:36 wildintellect: let's start over, what are you actually trying to do
15:38:03 doa: flash application that can tell people where opensource conferences are taking place
15:38:11 doa: and visually display them
15:38:59 doa: I need resources to be free
15:39:06 doa: open source
15:39:17 wildintellect: ah ok, so you want a basemap - do you want air photos or street data?
15:39:30 doa: both perferably
15:39:31 wildintellect: if you want OS why Flash?
15:40:02 doa: I am a flash developer
15:40:10 doa: as3
15:40:27 doa: and I can make things more interactive
15:40:48 doa: I can do it with ajax; yet, why put myself through the hassle
15:41:10 wildintellect: well I've heard theres a flash port of openlayers
15:41:30 wildintellect: http://openlayers.org/
15:41:32 sigq: Title: OpenLayers: Home ( at openlayers.org )
15:44:24 doa: I have postal code data and there latitude and longitude info; I wanted a mercator projection as it would be as simple as ploting x and y
15:44:40 doa: I am looking at what you have suggested
15:44:49 wildintellect: doa, http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/index.html and openstreetmap.org have the data you probably want
15:44:50 sigq: Title: The Atlas of Canada - Explore Our Maps ( at atlas.nrcan.gc.ca )
15:45:40 wildintellect: I suggest you do it for real, most lat/lon is in WGS84, and mercator is not as simple as x,y plotting
15:49:23 doa: are there any complete walk through tutorials from the ground up?
15:50:25 wildintellect: mostly just the example page for openlayers, http://openlayers.org/dev/examples/ and the irc room #openlayers
15:50:26 sigq: Title: OpenLayers Examples ( at openlayers.org )
15:53:19 doa: I am looking to learn how to do it all from start to finish. I am pretty good with math, so it doesn't need to be dumbed down too much. I will start with what you have suggested and see where that takes me.
16:02:42 doa: Are there any steps to learning all of this that you think I should take
16:02:44 doa: ?
16:03:24 wildintellect: start with a simple example and build up
16:04:52 springmeyer: doa: modestmaps has some flex/flash stuff going on you might check that out
16:05:43 springmeyer: one question you'll face is whether you need to serve your own basemap tiles - and modestmap/openlayers are just set up to read tiles in not serve them
16:07:20 doa: serving is not an issue and I would prefer to serve them myself
16:08:32 springmeyer: okay then also look into a rendering engine ( like mapserver, geoserver, or mapnik )
16:11:00 doa: why a rendering engine? If I have the tiles would it be too difficult to just server different zoom levels and overlay them?
16:11:32 doa: I meant serve different images per zoom level?
16:12:08 doa: as well, if it is vector based info, than I can handle that in flash.
16:12:19 springmeyer: to create the tiles from your data
16:12:39 springmeyer: right, or skip rendering to bitmap and handle directly in flash
16:14:30 springmeyer: but you'll perhaps need to simplify the vectors since a lot of gis data will be too large to keep as vectors
16:14:48 springmeyer: for example I worked on this gis -> flash project:
16:14:50 springmeyer: http://www.stateofthesalmon.org/msc/tool/index.html
16:14:51 sigq: Title: msc ( at www.stateofthesalmon.org )
16:15:23 springmeyer: we had to simplify the vector shapefiles before going to svg for flash
16:21:36 doa: that is a nifty application what was your process?... what projection is that? where did you get the gis data, and how did you go about matching the tiles? why svg?
16:23:22 springmeyer: sure...
16:23:28 springmeyer: overall is was a custom app and we didn't need to use any other data but our own
16:23:50 springmeyer: so since we did not need say, to overlay data on google tiles, we were not restricted in projection
16:24:17 springmeyer: so we used a custom mercator projection that spans the pacific
16:24:45 doa: custom?
16:25:14 springmeyer: the gis data is publically available hydrological data from the USGS and various states and BC
16:25:54 springmeyer: svg was the intermediate format to go between shapefiles ( gis vectors ) and the flash app
16:26:51 springmeyer: this was not the exact one used, but close: http://spatialreference.org/ref/sr-org/north-pacific-albers-conic-equal-area/
16:26:55 sigq: Title: North Pacific Albers Conic Equal Area : SR-ORG Projection -- Spatial Reference ( at spatialreference.org )
16:26:56 springmeyer: ( the albers version )
16:27:49 doa: why svg to flash and not directly?
16:27:54 springmeyer: I say custom because 99% of maps on the web use the Spherical Mercator projection
16:27:55 springmeyer: http://spatialreference.org/ref/sr-org/6/
16:27:58 sigq: Title: Google Projection: SR-ORG Projection -- Spatial Reference ( at spatialreference.org )
16:28:20 springmeyer: directly? you mean why not read in shapefiles directly?
16:28:31 doa: yes
16:28:56 springmeyer: because our flash team had no idea how to work with them : )
16:29:28 doa: oh...
16:29:28 springmeyer: read them, edit them, style them, etc
16:29:54 doa: I will have to learn about the structure of the shape file I guess
16:31:23 springmeyer: well, if you really want to : ) why not covert it to something you're more familiar with?
16:32:45 springmeyer: doa: their are some sample quebec shapefile here if you want something to play with:
16:32:46 springmeyer: http://svn.mapnik.org/trunk/demo/data/
16:32:47 sigq: Title: / - Revision 1069: /trunk/demo/data ( at svn.mapnik.org )
16:33:08 springmeyer: they are used to create the map here: http://trac.mapnik.org/wiki/WindowsInstallation
16:33:09 sigq: Title: WindowsInstallation – Mapnik Wiki & Documentation – Trac ( at trac.mapnik.org )
16:33:28 doa: because I am not familiar with svg..... I will deffinetly play, thank you
16:34:01 doa: definitely will check that out
16:37:39 doa: I will probably be back here to ask a ton more questions... thanks for the start
16:38:14 springmeyer: np, see you later
16:38:45 doa: thanks... just trying to figure out how to save the transcript in mirc
16:39:52 springmeyer: or just bookmark:
16:39:53 springmeyer: http://logs.qgis.org/osgeo/%23osgeo.2009-04-01.log
16:39:54 sigq: Title: IRC Log - #OSGEO ( at logs.qgis.org )
16:42:57 doa: I was just figuring out how to save a log file with mirc when you posted it... brilliant thank you copied and pasted.
16:45:38 doa: take care
22:04:41 TylerM: -------- One hour to Marketing Meeting ------------
22:23:41 wildintellect: ah good so I'm up for a reason
22:27:55 TylerM: hi wildintellect - all recovered from last week?
22:28:30 wildintellect: sorta, I was literally sick and it's gonna follow me for a while since it's breathing related
22:28:47 TylerM: guh.. stuffy auditorium? ; )
22:29:09 wildintellect: well at least I don't have to try and be on a panel while loosing my voice now
22:29:19 TylerM: ugh.. yeah
22:29:25 TylerM: instead you lose your voice afterwards?
22:29:45 wildintellect: it's actually a bug from my housemates, so not too much of a mystery
22:32:57 wildintellect: so we have a booth reservation for next year already - they'll nag you in a few months to pay if we actually want it
22:33:29 wildintellect: I told ajturner he was in charge of raising local funds for it
22:34:34 wildintellect: he seemed to think it would be easy - we just need to work out how to accept the money before then
22:34:47 TylerM: sounds good
22:38:53 ajturner: yes, TylerM I'm surprised that local chapters are required to create organizations and bank accts just to receive donations for large conferences
22:40:07 TylerM: hi andrew.. yes it something we were discussing.. certainly not a done deal. this is really the first instance of a chapter wanting to do it
22:40:45 ajturner: I do'nt think it will be difficult getting funding for DC - just not confident that we'll have ( or need ) bank accounts and formal 501c3 organization in place
22:41:10 TylerM: creating an org and bank account was not the only option, but would be a new direction that needs some discussion
22:41:38 TylerM: wildintellect: you told him that too didn't you? : )
22:41:51 TylerM: we talked about a lot of options
22:42:05 ajturner: TylerM: perhaps I misheard, I thought that was a _requirement_ - but if it's just an option, that's great
22:42:28 wildintellect: I'm not sure how much we discussed it
22:42:33 TylerM: okay, cool
22:42:49 TylerM: not an issue until someone has a check on the way ; )
22:42:54 wildintellect: but yes CA is hoping to avoid setting up our own stuff
22:43:12 wildintellect: well we need to setup something - we've been holding off on asking
22:43:46 wildintellect: for $ cause we weren't 100% clear on how to explain it to donors in the letter
22:43:48 TylerM: ajturner: it's more an issue when/if a chapter wants to have OSGeo handle various finances on their behalf.. as opposed to just passing the funds off to bolster marketing costs for an event.
22:49:00 ajturner: k -
22:49:06 ajturner: will chat more 'bout it later
22:56:01 : * TylerM looks around for anyone other than wildintellect and himself ...
22:56:24 wildintellect: maybe we need to adjust the meeting times
22:56:34 wildintellect: it should only get better for us
22:56:34 TylerM: heh yeah possibly
22:58:21 TylerM: we'll give them a few minutes.. unless you nod off : )
22:58:30 TylerM: I don't have a lot to report except to show some stuff
23:02:56 TylerM: good morning _wolf_ and yjacolin : )
23:03:14 TylerM: wildintellect: I think we're done.. you and I can catch up on our own ( more convenient ) time
23:03:18 wildintellect: TylerM, here's the floorplan for next year http://wiki.osgeo.org/images/8/86/Aag2010floorplan.pdf
23:03:34 : <_wolf_> good morning TylerM
23:03:42 yjacolin: good morning Tyler : )
23:03:52 TylerM: i have to say hello since I'm usually asleep by now ; )
23:04:38 yjacolin: hehe : )
23:05:16 yjacolin: TylerM: does the vol 5 of the journal is ready to move to LaTeX? i did not check since last week
23:05:35 TylerM: no - definitely not
23:05:41 TylerM: working on it this week still
23:05:45 : <_wolf_> TylerM: did you see the request to advertise on osgeo.org?
23:05:52 TylerM: hmm, not yet
23:05:59 TylerM: trying to avoid email and go to bed instead : )
23:06:27 wildintellect: I thought it interesting, and figured we'd have to discuss here
23:06:43 wildintellect: the short someone wants to pay for text ads on our page
23:07:24 TylerM: heh... hate it when that happens
23:07:56 TylerM: anyway.. unless there is anything urgent, i'd rather hit the sac
23:08:26 wildintellect: I'm good
23:08:33 TylerM: et faire mon lit...
23:08:47 wildintellect: _wolf_, I did a SOC info night at my university yesterday
23:08:50 TylerM: okay, thanks for coming wildintellect
23:09:01 TylerM: I really do want to catch up with you : )
23:09:12 : <_wolf_> wildintellect: cool. How did it go?
23:09:17 wildintellect: I'll be around a lot TylerM
23:09:23 TylerM: great...
23:09:40 : <_wolf_> good night TylerM : )
23:09:44 wildintellect: _wolf_, small turnout but positive response
23:09:56 wildintellect: I think we need to start talking with students much earlier
23:10:02 : <_wolf_> wildintellect: do you think it will result in any proposals?
23:10:16 : <_wolf_> wildintellect: yes for sure. In February or so
23:10:23 wildintellect: Landon from OpenJump came and had a couple people talk to him afterwards
23:10:28 : <_wolf_> it is hard to get people to think of summer in jan/feb
23:10:41 : <_wolf_> cool
23:11:01 wildintellect: these students seemed into it - just didn't know what projects they really wanted to work with
23:11:13 wildintellect: I had a mentor from Plone there too
23:11:30 : <_wolf_> well we have pretty much everything from low level C to javascript
23:11:39 : <_wolf_> cool
23:11:56 wildintellect: I know that, but finding people who want to do geospatial vs other stuff is tricky
23:12:28 wildintellect: one tri-lingual student wanted to work on translation engines
23:12:40 wildintellect: I wasn't sure if any OSGeo projects needed that right now
23:18:27 : <_wolf_> yes, oddly people don't realize that geospatial is the future