The upcoming issue of The New Yorker includes an article first
released yesterday to the magazine’s web site.
"Getting
There: The science of driving directions," offers a sharp-right overview of
evolving navigational technologies, running from Rand McNally paper maps to
their updated on-dash equivalents. A brief history of automobile
navigation gets a few column inches, too; both the "Jones Live-Map" and the "Photo-Auto
Guide" were early twentieth century contrivances for first-person (um,
first-vehicle?) navigating. Though it’s only briefly mentioned and mixed
in with a bunch of other fun, interesting details, one proposition is that we’re
seeing a resurgence in egocentric navigational devices with various mobile
gadgets.
Tag: location
Locative Reading Futures
Ever since I discovered that many of the books listed for 712 this
semester are searchable in Google Books,
I’ve been thinking about some of the ways to merge the full-text search with my
reading and note-keeping habits, especially as an added aid to memory and for tracing themes/topoi.
End-of-book indexes are, for the most part, adequate for the kind of thing I’m
talking about. I can turn to the back of Gunther Kress’s Literacy in
the New Media Age, for example, and find all of the pages where "design"
turns up. I suspect that the indexes at the ends of books are automated in
many cases with, perhaps, a slight amount of customization from the writer and
editor. Still, there are times when indexes don’t list the terms I want to
put in a row, follow. I’m aware of the labor-intensive manual methods for
tracing terms, and still I’m warm to shortcuts for what can be needlessly
exhaustive chores. Smarter, not harder, like my dad always says.
Frappring the Consortium
Before the break, I spent part of an afternoon mapping all of the programs from the Composition and
Rhetoric Consortium web site into
Frappr, then copying/pasting the
associated informational bits and URLs. Once finished:
a Frappr of the Comp/Rhet
Consortium. Sing sweet confessions, it was a fit of uninhibited geekiness,
motivated in part by my recollection that, when I decided to apply to doctoral
programs, I didn’t have a simple way to single out the programs proximate to the
Great Lakes–closest to where we ultimately hoped to move after KC.
Of course, the map stands the chance of amplifying other
(surprising-insightful?) qualities of the consortium’s East-leaning geography.
It’s possible that I’ve missed a program or two. If you spot one, please
let me know. I’ll add it (as long as its affiliation is undisputed).
Beyond that, there’s another practical motivation: I’d been meaning to give
Frappr a whirl (initially, I was thinking a collective
From
project with a DL course). It’s free and relatively easy. The groups
systematically associated with the CR Consortium seem a bit off.
The Crochet Dude and
Dr. Vino? Uh…if you insist.
Also, the system wants to remain open for others to add themselves. It would be
nice if there was a moderator feature for sifting new member additions (the
moderator is able to delete membrs and comments, fwiw, but anyone can add…I
think).
Also, the data and profiles are somewhat constrained. It’s not
possible–yet–to reorganize the listing of members. They can be sorted by
location, but you’ll see that Syracuse is listed at the top. I can’t
change that (well, right, maybe I wouldn’t if I could, but still).
My hunch is that another mapping option (Google Maps EZ or a Google Maps API hack)
would be better suited for the CR Consortium. And although Frappr does an
okay job of making available what I’d hoped to, I just might tinker with
switching the map to a different system in the months ahead–especially if the
geography course I’m taking encourages experimentation with Google Maps/Google
Local.
ClustrMaps
ClustrMaps
is back on the scene with a recent beta release. I don’t know that it was ever completely off the scene, but I dropped my map sometime in the spring because it didn’t seem to be updating any longer. It’s quite likely that
they’ve worked around some of the problems they had late last fall with
high-traffic maphogs, sluggish updates and so on, although my current (re-added today)
ClustrMap’s reflection of two visits since July 27 suggests there’s still a
glitch or two with the beta rollout. Or much worse, it’s accurate, meaning
that I’ve had just two visitors in 19 days (welcome to both of you, if that’s
the case). Yet another (highly likely) possibility, you actually have to
have the map showing on your site for the visits to reflect. Either way,
the beta release is available to others by invitation only from existing users.
And so, since I signed up last October, I have two invitations
available–exactly enough to pass along to both of you. No, seriously, if
you want a ClustrMap, just drop in a comment, and I’ll have one of the sign-ups
sent to your email.
From: Zonal Memoria
Considering that the del.icio.us bookmark that led me to it included a note
describing MSN Virtual
Earth (via) like this: "Cheap knock off of google maps done with crappy USGS
satellite data," I wasn’t expecting much. Yet, although the perspectives from
MSN present black and white satellite images, the site is, in some ways, better
than Google Maps because of resolution covering some of places I identify
with.