Google Maps – My First Map

I have had several attempts at playing with . With playing with Google, I mean use the opportunities that they give people to work/play with their tools and API’s.

Even though the whole copyright and ownership discussions, I still think it is a great chance for people like me to have a go at developing mash-ups of web applications in a fast and easy way. After receiving my eee pc, I started looking into web based applications. Mainly because of the limited storage capacity of the EEE.

I found that there was a lot of them! To be honest, most of the ones I decided to use where Google’s. The main reason to use these was the fact that I can include all, or most of them on the IGoogle page, and have an overview of everything, even with a tiny screen.

When I was looking around, I found that Google Gears offers off-line application access which is really nice.I also stumbled upon something that I would really like, and could not find anywhere. At least in the shape I’d want to use it.

I’m talking about a map here. I “needed” a map, that would center on my position (without GPS) and show me the Barcelona Bicing stations (big public bicycle project here in Barcelona) and bicycle lanes around.

The first issue was solved quickly, I found the Google Lattitude Gadget, which shows me a small map on my iGoogle page. Strangely, most of the times it does not work and when it does, it sometimes freezes my browser. This gadget made me think that geo-location using the wireless signal does work, as most of the times, it pinpoints my position within a 50 m. radius. More than enough for my purpose!

Also I looked at the Geode Add-on for Firefox, providing this functionality. I decided to build a map using that, as the code to write to get a location is extremely easy:

if (navigator.geolocation)
   navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(pos){ // position found
        alert( pos.latitude + " -- " + pos.longitude );
      }, function(){ // No position found
        alert( "Error getting your position. Sorry!!");
   });

For the people interested in where that information comes from, have a look at SkyHook, they provide the location data, coming from a huge database with access points, cell phone towers etc.

After a while (I am not a Java-script expert;) playing with the map and the geode location details I managed to build a map that centers on my position.

This however, was not something new, I wanted to give my map a use. So I decided to add a layer on top. I wanted a layer from the Google maps / My Maps to show. I built a map there with markers for my home, work and 3 or 4 other “interesting places”. Strangely enough that was very easy. Even adding a little check box on the page, switching the layer on or off worked fine.

The result was not too spectacular though. A map, showing me a few boring reddish google markers. The plan evolved to make sure I am not re-inventing the wheel (a lot of us tend to do that far too much!).

As explained, I wanted this map to become a handy tool for every Barcelona cyclist. The bicing stands, The bicycle lanes, maybe even specialised shops or beautiful sites, worth a stop or a picture are the minimal I wanted to show.

The to do list evolved to:

• Change the icons. Especially the one that locates me.
• See if it is possible to obtain the xml stream from Bicing, and add all the stations to my map.
• Add info balloons for the Bicing stations, showing information about the free slots, and remaining bicycles.
• Add an overlay with all Barcelona cycling lanes. (you can only find big PDF maps with them, since there are only a few cycling lanes in Barcelona I decided to make my own overlay for that.
• Add an overlay with nice (touristic) cycling routes.

For the moment this is what I am working on in my spare time. Ill keep this blog updated….

work of art in progress

Fon-Tastic! – update

Well, today (actually my last day before x-mas leave… ) in the office we did quite a lot of testing (since we also did quite a lot of drinking afterwards, I will not be able to tell what we exactly did;)

I found however, that the DD-WRT firmeware for the fonera (now using V 24 SP1) is a bit different then DD_WRT for other routers. My friend MF who uses DD-WRT on a netgear router saw that with the fonera it is not possible to put the router in repeater mode. (this is what he uses to make the router act as a repeater… duh!!).

This made us think it would be impossible to make the router repeat the wireless signal to wireless and the we would need to be physically connected (cable) to the router to be able to connect to our “distant” accesspoint”.

We then did some tests using the different modes to be able to make the router repeat the signal of the access point it was connected to, while we where both connected though a wireless virtual interface.

This works now and I have set this up at home. It works great! My router connects to a router closeby, but not close enough for my laptop IPW3945 Wireless card to pick it up. I have attached a windsurfer homemade antenna pointing to the accesspoint which increased signal quality by allmost 20%!!!

As this was my end objective, Ill leave things as they are now. At least untill my friendly neighbour (offering his open ADSL connection and router access) makes a change on his router*.

Ill post some pictures of my setup soon! (…)

* He should be very thankfull, as his router would disconnect from the ISP very frequently, leaving him/us without internet for hours or sometimes days. This has been sorted now, thanks to a small script that runs on my router, pings google, and if the ping fails, runs the connect command.

I’m a fonero!

At home, my on line experience differs by the day. I purely depend on my neighbours who have an unencrypted connection to be able to connect to the Internet.

As I am living abroad, Internet is something kind of indispensable, keeping in touch with friends, watching some dutch TV shows etc. However, the prices for Internet access are ridiculous, as is the quality.

When I first heard about FON, I decided not to sign on, and first have a look at how the project was evolving in Spain. Mainly because this country is sometimes a difficult technology adopter. However, I now checked back, after almost a year and found a lot of fon wireless hot-spots in my neighbourhood.

Since I’m a bit of a techie, and like playing/experimenting, I have now signed up. The main idea behind this is to build an antenna which Ill put up on the roof of my building. with this, I hope to be able to access the 3 hot-spots I have around my house. However, since I do not pick up the signals from within my apartment, I will try to build a directional antenna. (I could just go out and buy one … but then … where is the fun?).

When I succeed, and manage to have an always on Internet connection, I will put up a secondary antenna (omni) to share with a much larger area. This I believe is just how the fon mentality should work; Have connected people share their connection.

I have been experimenting with home build antennas a bit, and found that in an easy way you can build a pretty string antenna, or make an omnidirectional a directional antenna. With the help of Mathias, a equally techie friend, have successfully made an amplifier for my wifi USB-Stick, which increases signal by almost 10%. This gave me the confidence I needed to start this home-project.

If anyone has a good experience with a specific antenna mod, please let me know!

UPDATE: although I signed up for fon only last Friday, today my router was delivered!! this was completely unexpected as the delivery was supposed to take 3 weeks!

Some more information about fon:

http://www.fon.com/en/info/whatsFon

Check if you have hot-spots close-by:

http://maps.fon.com/

That’s all for now, more updates to follow!