Over the past week, I’ve been spending some time learning Python. My real interest is in Jython, the Python interpreter for Java, but there’s no difference in language semantics so it’s just like learning Python. Earlier this week, I ran into the “Google Map Hack for Large Maps” in my del.icio.us/popular feed. This is a great way to build poster sized maps using Google’s map images. Noah Vawter, the original author of the hack wrote a Perl based script that downloads Google Maps’ tile images based on a location you feed then stitches them together to make a giant image. I decided to take his Perl script and rewrite it as a Jython script. It’ll actually work in Python with some minor modifications to the code. If you want to use this script, you’ll need Jython and ImageMagick. Noah’s Perl script relies on wget… my script uses Python’s urllib to grab the images and save them… so no need for wget. Enjoy!
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manalang
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manalang
Tim Bray just posted an excellent essay about how to survive as a forward thinking technology company.
The Front Door and the CIO Ive dealt with quite a few CIOs, and they dont think about technology, they think in business terms and those are the only terms they think in. When the SAP salesman says a company can cut acquisition and logistics costs, or the IBM salesman says Notes can get people working together better, nobody thinks much about what the architecture is or how it works or whether programmers like working with it. Both those salesmen came in through the front door.
I think it’s fair to say that most ERP vendors are front door technology companies. Regarding the back door:
When I say back-door technology I mean what the matrix called Happy Programmers. The idea is, if the back-room geeks like something, and find that its useful, theyll start using it whether management thinks its a good idea or not.
A company running entirely on a back door strategy may not be very focused on the one thing that matters in business, customers. So, it’s easy to see that back door companies might have happy R&D teams, but can’t keep profits up.
Building Back-door Tech First off, theres no point trying to do corporate planning on this, you leave the geeks to themselves and it either happens or it doesnt.
For Sun (or at least Tim Bray), the back door is about three things:
# Get serious about dynamic languages — that is, better adoption of some of the leading open source languages or geek toys, Perl, PHP, Python, etc. Makes a ton of sense. If the geeks like the tools they have to use, they’re more inclined to build better software, and more of it.
# “Be the first with the most on syndication technology”
# Capitalize on all of the WS-* standards emergingI think all companies, big or small, should be thinking about how to bridge their front and back door strategies. The alternative is not an option.
The Alternative That would be to ignore the back door and decide that if CIOs dont want it today, our engineers shouldnt be working on it. Wait, Ive seen that movie before… it was at a computer company, second-largest in the world when I worked there, called Digital Equipment Corporation. R.I.P. That approach would not only be fatal, it would be boring. Lets not do it.
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manalang
The next big innovation in the digital camera industry has nothing to do with increased mega pixels, larger CCDs, or faster image processors. I think the next big thing in digital photography is GPS technology embedded right into the camera.
This past Summer, I bought a GPS receiver for use with Geocaching. And at some point after that, I began to wonder about the technology and how pervasive it has become with today’s latest automobiles. I like the idea of having a navigation system in my car, but realistically, I probably wouldn’t use it as often as the manufacturer would lead me to believe. Plus, I just hate the idea of something else that can distract me from driving safely — I think DVD players, non-hands free cell phones, and other gizmos that take a driver’s focus away from the responsibility from driving safely should stay out of the car.
Being a digital photography enthusiast, I bring my camera with me almost everywhere I go. I like the idea of being able to capture the moment (whatever moment that is) instantly without the cost of film. Plus, the fact that digital cameras have the ability to record the technical information about a photo is intriguing to me. A few years ago, my wife and I took a six week trip around Europe. Between us, we took close to a thousand photos during the six week excursion. However, at the time, we took our film based SLRs. I discovered many drawbacks to using film even though the photos turned out amazing. One of the biggest drawbacks is not just about not having any technical information about the photos, but also not remembering where some of the photos were taken. After a few years, I pulled the photos back out of the shoe box they’re now kept in. And without immediately tagging and indexing the photos, I can’t recollect where some of them were taken.
Now, consider this — if I had a GPS enabled digital camera at the time, I wouldn’t have to care about tagging and indexing these photos after they’ve been developed. The camera would have created EXIF or IPTC headers that told me not just the technical data about the photos, but also the exact coordinates of where the individual photos were taken. Now imagine if there was a free web service that allowed me to pull in location information based on a set of GPS coordinates. Also, imagine if there was software that allowed you to download location information and add it directly to your photos IPTC headers. The information could be basic city, state/province, or country details or be more detailed information about where you actually were. For example, if I took photos in the Vatican, the service would actually deliver information to me about the Vatican. Now that’s a killer application!
So, I decided to search Google to see if anyone’s thought of this before. And so I find out that my idea isn’t very original. The first hit I got was from Gizmodo pointing to Ricoh’s WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS enabled camera. Oh well, so much for the possibility of being original. However, I do think that many digital cameras will eventually evolve to this. I just hope it happens sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, I’ll settle for a decently priced digital SLR that will allow me to use my Nikkor lenses… the Nikon D70.
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manalang
Frank Leahy’s post on How to Make Photos More Searchable got me thinking about the future of digital photography. With digital cameras enabling people to take more photos than ever, it’s going to be more important to have some way to organize those photos beyond having fancy software like Adobe’s Photoshop Album. The one promising aspect of digital photos produced by most digital cameras today is the EXIF data it produces. EXIF data is typically comprised of the technical data about the photo such as shutter speed, aperture, date/time it was taken, etc. However, it can also contain data like the GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken and also comments the photographer might have about the scene. Imagine a digital camera that knew where the picture was taken. All of this stored inside the image file.
I might have hinted about the benefits of EXIF in my previous post, but to explain further, making good use of EXIF data gives digital photography enthusiasts a great way to catalog and archive their photos. It will also enable them to search through these archives better without the need for complex software or databases.
Making use of EXIF data in my photos is my current pursuit. Now that I’ve got a gallery that displays my photos EXIF data. I am looking at creating a PHP application that will allow me to edit the user comments attribute of a photo’s EXIF data. Currently, I’m looking at using jhead to be able to write to the EXIF headers of an image since PHP currently only supports reading from the headers. If that doesn’t work, I plan on just using software to edit the EXIF data. Photo Studio is a free application that will allow me to view and edit my EXIF data before posting the photo on the web.
I’m hoping that more software and hardware vendors begin to take EXIF seriously and realize its potential for enhancing the digital photography experience. The promise of digital photography shouldn’t be just about the image. The data that supports that image is just as important.
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manalang
Today is “One Unwired Day.” Go out and enjoy free wireless access compliments of Intel! If you’re looking for a place to “unwire”, use this Zagat guide as a reference or got to hotspotlist.com to find a hotspot near you.