Backpacker magazine's Trailside Navigation: Map and Compass (Backpacker Magazine Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A nice little book on trailside navigation. It is always good to know where you are at and where you are going. I was hiking in a national park this summer with my wife coming down a mountain when we came across some other hikers who were absolutely exhausted. They decided to turn back when they found out it was not going to get any easier. One of them had selected the hike and said that "it looked pretty flat on the map". They were on one of the steepest trails in the park with frequent switchbacks to make the trail hikable. It is always nice to know that when map contour lines are very close together, it is steep and when the contour lines are very far apart it is in fact flat. I wish I had a copy of this book to give them at the time.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Backpacker magazine's Trailside Navigation: Map and Compass (Backpacker Magazine Series)

Backpacker magazine–branded, and fueled by FalconGuides, Backpacker Magazine's Trailside Navigation brings you essential mind gear from the two most respected and reliable publishers of outdoor-related information. Learn how to choose and use a compass and altimeter; read a map; plot a course and find your way through the wilderness; and use maps and compass in concert with a GPS receiver. Perfect for pack or pocket, this book breaks down its subject into the essential topics, providing practical and portable information useful in the field. Full-color photos and illustrations complement concise, clear text, introducing you to basic and intermediate skills needed to safely and successfully get by in the outdoors.

Click here for more information about Backpacker magazine's Trailside Navigation: Map and Compass (Backpacker Magazine Series)

Read More...

Atlas of Science: Visualizing What We Know Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Katy Borner's Atlas of Science is a large format, richly illustrated book introducing satellite views of science from above. With the importance of data visualization as a reflection and new visual language for contemporary culture, having a better sense of this similar but entirely new genre of Science Maps based on 'big data' is critical. Borner's book goes far beyond beauty by being the first Atlas of its kind. A highlight of the book is the "Milestones in Mapping Science" timeline covering 1930 to 2007 in 20 pages. The process, techniques and reference systems used in creating these highly refined maps are also described in great detail. So the book acts as a superb, highly visual introduction to the field for students, professionals and the general public. Another highlight: readers can access much of the material online in a companion site. High resolution images, all references, the history of the atlas, and events are all linked from [...] - Enjoy!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Atlas of Science: Visualizing What We Know

Cartographic maps have guided our explorations for centuries, allowing usto navigate the world. Science maps have the potential to guide our search forknowledge in the same way, allowing us to visualize scientific results. Science mapshelp us navigate, understand, and communicate the dynamic and changing structure ofscience and technology--help us make sense of the avalanche of data generated byscientific research today. Atlas of Science, featuring more than thirty full-pagescience maps, fifty data charts, a timeline of science-mapping milestones, and 500color images, serves as a sumptuous visual index to the evolution of modern scienceand as an introduction to "the science of science"--charting thetrajectory from scientific concept to published results. Atlas of Science, based onthe popular exhibit, "Places & Spaces: Mapping Science," describes anddisplays successful mapping techniques. The heart of the book is a visual feast:Claudius Ptolemy's Cosmographia World Map from 1482; a guide to a PhD thesis thatresembles a subway map; "the structure of science" as revealed in a map ofcitation relationships in papers published in 2002; a visual periodic table; ahistory flow visualization of the Wikipedia article on abortion; a globe showing theworldwide distribution of patents; a forecast of earthquake risk; hands-on sciencemaps for kids; and many more. Each entry includes the story behind the map andbiographies of its makers. Not even the most brilliant minds can keep up withtoday's deluge of scientific results. Science maps show us the landscape of what weknow.

Click here for more information about Atlas of Science: Visualizing What We Know

Read More...

Map Scripting 101: An Example-Driven Guide to Building Interactive Maps with Bing, Yahoo, and Google Maps Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've gone over different aspects of this book a few times now, and was really looking forward to it showing a few things with ease, that I was looking to complete for a site I'm working on. Needless to say, I'm rather disappointed with the code issues within the book. I've compared the code in the book itself to the code on both the books website and the code on the Mapstraction website, and it varies much from both. So much so that it doesn't even work correctly...I believe that it's partially due to the lack of clarity on the Mapstraction website. The book does excel in describing techniques used for map scripting without a reliance on any one particular service, but after the issues described above, I feel that sticking to one service (such as google maps) would make your life a lot easier.
Pros
- Good read for basic concepts
- Easy to read and understand
Cons
- Flawed code and examples
- Book site code doesn't always match books code
(site code appears to be outdated! How this is possible I don't know)

Click Here to see more reviews about: Map Scripting 101: An Example-Driven Guide to Building Interactive Maps with Bing, Yahoo, and Google Maps


Websites like MapQuest and Google Maps have transformed the way we think about maps. But these services do more than offer driving directions—they provide APIs that web developers can use to build highly customized map-based applications.

In Map Scripting 101, author Adam DuVander delivers 73 immediately useful scripts that will show you how to create interactive maps and mashups. You'll build tools like a local concert tracker, a real-time weather map, a Twitter friend-finder, an annotated map of Central Park, and much more. And because the book is based on the cross-platform Mapstraction JavaScript library, everything you create will be able to use nearly any mapping service, including OpenStreetMap, MapQuest, Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

You'll also learn how to:

Create, embed, and manipulate basic maps by setting zoom levels and map boundaries
Show, hide, and filter location markers and info-bubbles
Customize your maps for visitors based on their location
Use common data formats like GPS XML, Google Earth's KML, and GeoRSS
Create graphical overlays on maps to better analyze data and trends
Use freely available geodata from websites like Yelp and Upcoming—and public domain geodata from the US government

Map Scripting 101 is perfect for any web developer getting started with map scripting, whether you want to track earthquakes around the world, or just mark the best coffee shops in Dubuque.

Click here for more information about Map Scripting 101: An Example-Driven Guide to Building Interactive Maps with Bing, Yahoo, and Google Maps

Read More...

Google Maps Hacks: Tips & Tools for Geographic Searching and Remixing Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Google Maps API lets developers embed Google Maps in their own web pages with JavaScript. You can add overlays to the map (including markers and polylines) and display shadowed "info windows" just like in the maps section of Google. "Google Map Hacks" shows you how to use the power of the Google Maps API to perform useful tasks via your web pages. A key is required to use the API, and a single Google Maps API key is valid for a single directory on your web server, so the key you get will be good for all URLs in that particular directory. You must have a Google Account to get a Maps API key, and your API key will be connected to your Google Account.
The book starts out with a simple "Hello World" map application and moves on to show you how to map local weather conditions, find the best prices on a particular product, share pictures with your community, and add interactivity by causing a map to pan or zoom in response to user input. There are a total of 70 hacks that are actually map projects rather than just tips, which is often the case in other O'Reilly Hack books. I particularly liked the set of hacks in chapter 4, "On the Road". Since I live in the uber-congested Washington DC metro area, it is helpful to have hacks that tell me how to avoid traffic jams and how to find out "why my cell phone doesn't work there". Because using the Google Map API depends on inserting the correct code into the Javascript of web pages, the reader should already be familiar with HTML and with Javascript in order to get the most from this book. Amazon does not show the table of contents (list of Hacks) so I do that here:
Chapter 1. You Are Here: Introducing Google Maps
Hack 1. Get Around http://maps.google.com
Hack 2. Find Yourself (and Others) on Google Maps
Hack 3. Navigate the World in Your Web Browser
Hack 4. Get the Bird's-Eye View
Hack 5. Driven to a Better User Interface
Hack 6. Share Google Maps
Hack 7. Inside Google Maps URLs
Hack 8. Generate Links to Google Maps in a Spreadsheet
Hack 9. Use del.icio.us to Keep Up with Google Maps
Chapter 2. Introducing the Google Maps API
Hack 10. Add a Google Map to Your Web Site
Hack 11. Where Did the User Click?
Hack 12. How Far Is That? Go Beyond Driving Directions
Hack 13. Create a Route with a Click (or Two)
Hack 14. Create Custom Map Markers
Hack 15. Map a Slideshow of Your Travels
Hack 16. How Big Is the World?
Chapter 3. Mashing Up Google Maps
Hack 17. Map the News
Hack 18. Examine Patterns of Criminal Activity
Hack 19. Map Local Weather Conditions
Hack 20. Track Official Storm Reporting
Hack 21. Track the International Space Station
Hack 22. Witness the Effects of a Nuclear Explosion
Hack 23. Find a Place to Live
Hack 24. Search for Events by Location
Hack 25. Track Your UPS Packages
Hack 26. Follow Your Packets Across the Internet
Hack 27. Add Google Maps to Any Web Site
Hack 28. How Big Is That, Exactly?
Chapter 4. On the Road with Google Maps
Hack 29. Find the Best Gasoline Prices
Hack 30. Stay out of Traffic Jams
Hack 31. Navigate Public Transportation
Hack 32. Locate a Phone Number
Hack 33. Why Your Cell Phone Doesn't Work There
Hack 34. Publish Your Own Hiking Trail Maps
Hack 35. Load Driving Directions into Your GPS
Hack 36. Get Driving Directions for More Than Two Locations
Hack 37. View Your GPS Tracklogs in Google Maps
Hack 38. Map Your Wardriving Expeditions
Hack 39. Track Your Every Move with Google Earth
Hack 40. The Ghost in Google Ride Finder
Hack 41. How Google Maps Got Me Out of a Traffic Ticket
Chapter 5. Google Maps in Words and Pictures
Hack 42. Get More out of What You Read
Hack 43. Don't Believe Everything You Read on a Map
Hack 44. You Got Your A9 Local in My Google Maps!
Hack 45. Share Pictures with Your Community
Hack 46. Browse Photography by Shooting Location
Hack 47. Geotag Your Own Photos on Flickr
Hack 48. Tell Your Community's Story
Hack 49. Generate Geocoded RSS from Any Google Map
Hack 50. Geoblog with Google Maps in Thingster
Chapter 6. API Tips and Tricks
Hack 51. Make a Fullscreen Map the Right Way
Hack 52. Put a Map and HTML into Your Info Windows
Hack 53. Add Flash Applets to Your Google Maps
Hack 54. Add a Nicer Info Window to Your Map with TLabel
Hack 55. Put Photographs on Your Google Maps
Hack 56. Pin Your Own Maps to Google Maps with TPhoto
Hack 57. Do a Local Zoom with GxMagnifier
Hack 58. Find the Right Zoom Level
Hack 59. Show Lots of Stuff-Quickly
Hack 60. Make Things Happen When the Map Moves
Hack 61. Use the Right Developer's Key Automatically
Chapter 7. Extreme Google Maps Hacks
Hack 62. Find the Latitude and Longitude of a Street Address
Hack 63. Read and Write Markers from a MySQL Database
Hack 64. Build Custom Icons on the Fly
Hack 65. Add More Imagery with a WMS Interface
Hack 66. Add Your Own Custom Map
Hack 67. Serve Custom Map Imagery
Hack 68. Automatically Cut and Name Custom Map Tiles
Hack 69. Cluster Markers at High Zoom Levels
Hack 70. Other Cool Ways to Use Google Maps


Click Here to see more reviews about: Google Maps Hacks: Tips & Tools for Geographic Searching and Remixing


Want to find every pizza place within a 15-mile radius? Where the dog parks are in a new town? The most central meeting place for your class, club or group of friends? The cheapest gas stations on a day-to-day basis? The location of convicted sex offenders in an area to which you may be considering moving? The applications, serendipitous and serious, seem to be infinite, as developers find ever more creative ways to add to and customize the satellite images and underlying API of Google Maps.

Written by Schuyler Erle and Rich Gibson, authors of the popular Mapping Hacks, Google Maps Hacks shares dozens of tricks for combining the capabilities of Google Maps with your own datasets. Such diverse information as apartment listings, crime reporting or flight routes can be integrated with Google's satellite imagery in creative ways, to yield new and useful applications.

The authors begin with a complete introduction to the "standard" features of Google Maps. The adventure continues with 60 useful and interesting mapping projects that demonstrate ways developers have added their own features to the maps. After that's given you ideas of your own, you learn to apply the techniques and tools to add your own data to customize and manipulate Google Maps. Even Google seems to be tacitly blessing what might be seen as unauthorized use, but maybe they just know a good thing when they see one.

With the tricks and techniques you'll learn from Google Maps Hacks, you'll be able to adapt Google's satellite map feature to create interactive maps for personal and commercial applications for businesses ranging from real estate to package delivery to home services, transportation and more. Includes a foreword by Google Mapstech leads, Jens and Lars Rasmussen.

Click here for more information about Google Maps Hacks: Tips & Tools for Geographic Searching and Remixing

Read More...

Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My wife and I just returned from a five night stay in Mexico City.
Along with An Opinionated Guide, we used Fodors.
For me, the great value of An Opinionated Guide was the walks it lead me and my wife on. These walks were through both the historical center and some of the wealthy and artistic neighborhoods.
I feel that the walks gave me as good a sense of Mexico City as a non-Spanish speaking tourist is likely to get in a few days.
I agree with another reviewer that sometimes it was helpful to carry along a thicker guidebook which gives longer descriptions of specific sites.
One way in which this criticism does not seem fair, however, is that many of the sites that the walks cover are not so much historically or culturally important (a famous painting or a building by an important architect)as they are important in showing an aspect of Mexican life: transvestite hair dressers in a flower market and how this reveals the tolerance of Mexican society or a uniform shop where the mannequins are posed like famous sculptures such as the Pieta and how this shows the presence of a folk art tradition.
I think this is an essential book for anyone traveling for pleasure to Mexico City.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler

As the largest metropolis on the planet, Mexico City is surely a place where one appreciates a guiding hand. Written by a resident who knows the city inside and out, it offers detailed walking tours of the most interesting areas and recommendations of where to stay, what to do and where to eat, from authentic market food to sophisticated Mexican cuisine.

"This is the guidebook I want...Wonderfully written, airtight information, organized in the smartest possible way...I can't imagine a better Mexico City guide for these times."

—Tony Cohan, author of Mexican Days and On Mexican Time.

Click here for more information about Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler

Read More...

GIS for Web Developers: Adding 'Where' to Your Web Applications Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book is a great introduction to web mapping for someone new to the subject, either a new developer or a manager. If you already have some GIS skills, this is still a good book, except it is becoming dated. The author is committed to open source tools, and that is the focus of the book.
The first few chapters cover the following:
-Vectors
-Projections
-Rasters
All things that would be useful for someone new and can be skipped by someone with a GIS background.
The rest of the book covers the following general concepts:
-The Open Geospatial Consortium and their web service specifications
-Geospatial databases
The author then gets into specifics on the following:
-Geoserver
-Mapbuilder (no longer an active project)
-Openlayers
He gives some information on Google Maps, Mapserver, and other products, but no real detail.

Click Here to see more reviews about: GIS for Web Developers: Adding 'Where' to Your Web Applications


There is a hidden revolution going on: geography is moving from niche to the mainstream. News reports routinely include maps and satellite images. More and more pieces of equipment cell phones, cars, computers now contain Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. Many of the major database vendors have made geographic data types standard in their flagship products.

GIS for Web Developers introduces Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in simple terms and demonstrates hands-on uses. With this book, you'll explore popular websites like maps.google.com, see the technologies they use, and learn how to create your own. Written with the usual Pragmatic Bookshelf humor and real-world experience, GIS for Web Developers makes geographic programming concepts accessible to the common developer.

This book will demystify GIS and show you how to make GIS work for you. You'll learn the buzzwords and explore ways to geographically-enable your own applications. GIS is not a fundamentally difficult domain, but there is a barrier to entry because of the industry jargon. This book will show you how to "walk the walk" and "talk the talk" of a geographer.

You'll learn how to find the vast amounts of free geographic data that's out there and how to bring it all together. Although this data is free, it's scattered across the web on a variety of different sites, in a variety of incompatible formats. You'll see how to convert it among several popular formats including plain text, ESRI Shapefiles, and Geography Markup Language (GML).

With this book in hand, you'll become a real geographic programmer using the Java programming language.You'll find plenty of working code examples in Java using some of the many GIS-oriented applications and APIs.You'll be able to:
Find free sources of GIS data on the web Browse GIS data using open source desktop viewers Manipulate GIS data programmatically Store and retrieve data using geographically-enabled databases Explore free web toolkits like Google Maps Publish and consume web services using Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) interfaces

Click here for more information about GIS for Web Developers: Adding 'Where' to Your Web Applications

Read More...

Web Mapping Illustrated: Using Open Source GIS Toolkits Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I found this book a "tough call" when I came to writing a review.
I have to admit to not being a big fan of a lot of the technology showcased this book (PostGIS aside). I have professional reasons for saying this that do not concern us in this review but should be admitted up front.
Firstly I want to be clear that we should thank Tyler because he has done a very good job in weaving a consistent and useful thread through all the technologies in the book.
However, I had to think about why he chose these particular technologies and why the book was laid out the way it is because it was not initially clear to me what relevance a lot of them had to the book's title - Web Mapping. To me the title implied a richer potential content wrt "web mapping" per se, so that when I opened the book I was surprised to see that quite a bit of it was really about GIS basics such that a title more like "Getting started with MapServer" or "MapServer for GIS Dummies" (not an O'Reilly title I grant) might have been more appropriate!
I also don't know if this book accurately targets its audience. If you expect a real treatise on the University of Minnesota's MapServer then this book will not fill all your needs. If you want to see a set of open source technologies put together in a logical and coherent way so that you can start on understanding Web Mapping from one view point only then this book is useful.
On to the book itself.
He has also highlighted some important features of some of the technologies in a way that good training courses often do. The lights definitely go on and you will hear yourself say: "Ahh, so that's what this does!". That is what this book did for me across a number of technologies: in particular the OGR and GDAL command line tools. (Thanks, Tyler, for this alone.) He also does what all good trainers should do: he clearly demonstrated software functionality via concrete examples. It is my view that, except for university, most people learn by doing and this book works well in supporting those who find manuals and technical documents opaque when trying to assess software usefulness.
I really wasn't sure if the technical detail with respect to things like command line actions for installing, compiling and installing some software was that useful: I admit to skim reading this stuff. Is this Web Mapping for the uninitiated gun programmer? Or is this something that less technical geospatial professionals whose only world is that of the mainstream "pay per license" software products (on Windows) would get excited over? Unless command line computing is coming back and becoming mainstream again (and I am of that vintage), most people today expect the initial heavy lifting decisions to have been done for them so they can start "value adding" immediately. I think all the configuration decision making that is involved with open source technologies is still a big put off: I know it is to me, and I have 20+ years in the IT/GIS industry!
I also thought that the technologies described in the book showed what I can only describe as a North American (perhaps even Canadian) bias in the choice of technologies. Look, this is a bit of a quibble because I really can understand a lot of the choices precisely because the main distribution of the tools in the book (except PostGIS) is via FWTools which contains OpenEV, GDAL, MapServer & PROJ.4: all core technologies to the book. Yet I really don't think it is all that obvious. (I had to double check when writing this review.) Even so, my view is that more coverage should have been given to other open source technologies rather than a particular group. So, for example, why not cover the really big database of the open source community: MySQL (not just PostGIS)? And this oversight is strange given that the book mentions OGR/GDAL support for Oracle Spatial and ArcSDE which are of little interest (in one sense) to the open source people and are not accessible unless the company you work for has them. Also, why doesn't the book give more airtime to the excellent GeoServer WFS (and WMS) than just MapServer's read-only WFS? Why not hightlight the actively developed European managed Deegree WMS/WFS? Sure, MapServer has both WMS/WFS capabilities so let's concentrate on one rather than confuse people with others (just reference them instead - yet Deegree doesn't even get a mention in the book).
But all this musing gets me back to the title. Is it really "Web Mapping Illustrated"? Not really. Perhaps it should have been called "Getting started with MapServer". Too long? "FWTools Illustrated". Certainly not eye catching in terms of elucidating interest from browsers of bookshops and Amazon.
All in all, a good book and very useful. It certainly helped me and because of it I have decided to use some of the supporting technologies in it in my day job. Well done Tyler.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Web Mapping Illustrated: Using Open Source GIS Toolkits


With the help of the Internet and accompanying tools, creating and publishing online maps has become easier and rich with options. A city guide web site can use maps to show the location of restaurants, museums, and art venues. A business can post a map for reaching its offices. The state government can present a map showing average income by area.

Developers who want to publish maps on the web often discover that commercial tools cost too much and hunting down the free tools scattered across Internet can use up too much of your time and resources. Web Mapping Illustrated shows you how to create maps, even interactive maps, with free tools, including MapServer, OpenEV, GDAL/OGR, and PostGIS.It also explains how to find, collect, understand, use, and share mapping data, both over the traditional Web and using OGC-standard services like WFS and WMS.

Mapping is a growing field that goes beyond collecting and analyzing GIS data. Web Mapping Illustrated shows how to combine free geographic data, GPS, and data management tools into one resource for your mapping information needs so you don't have to lose your way while searching for it.

Remember the fun you had exploring the world with maps? Experience the fun again with Web Mapping Illustrated. This book will take you on a direct route to creating valuable maps.

Click here for more information about Web Mapping Illustrated: Using Open Source GIS Toolkits

Read More...

Marketing Campaign Development: What Marketing Executives Need to Know About Architecting Global Integrated Marketing Campaigns Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is more than an excellent book, it is also a practical and easy-to-use "tool kit" to help the reader develop complex company-wide marketing campaigns successfully. Mike starts with the basics: marketing campaign terminology, roles and responsibilities, establishing campaign objectives and schedules. He provides examples of agendas for key meetings, and suggestions for who should be invited to attend each. He provides templates for key planning documents, slide presentations, and campaign timelines. Gospe describes how to build the program blueprints critical for success, how to manage campaign budgets, and even how to overcome objections from the inevitable nay-sayers in many organizations. Throughout the book Gospe provides real-life examples of marketing campaigns he has planned.
As a bonus, Gospe also provides a website from which to download the templates, program blueprints, and a comprehensive integrated marketing plan slideset template. There are a lot of good ideas in this very complete and comprehensive book. An excellent value for a very reasonable price.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Marketing Campaign Development: What Marketing Executives Need to Know About Architecting Global Integrated Marketing Campaigns

This book is a practical, pragmatic "how to" book designed for hi-tech marketing operations, regional, and corporate marketing leaders at every level. This unique book takes you step-by-step through the disciplined, yet practical, process of architecting truly integrated marketing communications plans that work. In it, you fill find a prescription for building a successful, repeatable campaign development process, including the necessary templates and helpful, practical techniques.
This book is your guide that will show you how you can optimize your marketing efforts and achieve an even greater return on your marketing investment.
While many of us will recognize a good, well-thought-out marketing campaign when we see one, the single, basic truth about world-class marketing campaign development is that it is easy to say, but hard to do. It is hard to do because we all like to take short-cuts. I hear the lament all too often: "I'm over-worked don't have the time to think strategically" or "Planning is overrated. I just need to get these projects done." As a result, we take short-cuts like "ready, fire, aim." Lack of planning is the slippery slope that leads to wasteful marketing. Then one day we get the call from the corner office to come and explain why our marketing efforts did not produce the desired results.
Luckily, architecting world-class campaigns is achievable for any marketing team. Successful marketing requires following a disciplined, systematic approach to working cross-functionally and cross-regionally in order to prioritize marketing objectives, design a customer-engaging go-to-market strategy, and execute the plan.

Click here for more information about Marketing Campaign Development: What Marketing Executives Need to Know About Architecting Global Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Read More...