Paul Johnson's diary
Recent diary entries:
Shame on Wilf's; kudos to Amtrak, Amtrak Police
Shame on Wilf's Piano Bar and Restaurant for holding a function in Portland Union Station's lobby without Amtrak permission. No self-respecting Portlander should patronize this business after what they pulled tonight. Wilf's decided the perfect venue for a bunch of drunken attendees of "Computing In a Changing World" would be their next door neighbor's (Amtrak's) lobby. Portland Union is a major station.
Kudos to AmPol and the PPB for responding quickly to remove the tresspassers (even if you arrived the same time the train did).
Kudos to Amtrak for setting it right with double points and a drink coupon, and handling a completely crappy situation with understanding and a smile.
Coordinates:Posted by Paul Johnson at Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:35:01 +0000 in English (English)
Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 1 comment
Cyclemap problems with waterways
What's with most of the northern Willamette Valley appearing flooded here?
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=45.253&lon=-122.795&zoom=9&layers=00B0FTF
Posted by Paul Johnson at Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:47:51 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 3 comments
Cyclemap problems with waterways
What's with most of the northern Willamette Valley appearing flooded here?
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=45.253&lon=-122.795&zoom=9&layers=00B0FTF
Posted by Paul Johnson at Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:47:46 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 1 comment
Oregon speed zone orders
All streets and highways in Oregon have a speed order. Here's where you can find them: https://keiko36.odot.state.or.us/whalecomfb751917efb5683a9c287df8a9ad831f7e55a2048a/whalecom0/cf/szi/
Posted by Paul Johnson at Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:06:13 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
I405 (Stadium Freeway) closure update
Those who are in or planning to be in the Portland, Oregon area during the next few weeks should be aware of some upcoming closures of all lanes and ramps on the Stadium Freeway. The last two closures are already tagged on OSM, and I'm also taking this opportunity to do some much needed cleanup on the Stadium Freeway corridor in the map; if you have any known issues or GPX tracks for the Stadium Freeway, both would be appreciated (please use OpenStreetBugs or the GPX upload here).
This happens to be the very first repaving project for the Stadium Freeway, which was completed in 1964. Sam Baldock built 'em hardcore back then!
Coordinates:Posted by Paul Johnson at Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:35 +0000 in English (English)
Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
What's wrong with this river?
This multipolygon segment of the Willamette River isn't rendering properly. I've been trying for weeks now to find how and where it's broken but keep coming up dry. How do I fix this?
Coordinates:Posted by Paul Johnson at Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:11:44 +0000 in English (English)
Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 1 comment
Cartografía de una grieta horizontal
¿Cómo manejan las calles y edificios que no fueron originalmente metro, pero ahora son? Parece que hay un pueblo cerca de una faultline que sufre graves de este fenómeno ( http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=en&tl=es&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.environmentalgraffiti.com%2Ffeatured%2Ftown-devoured-by-rock%2F10450 ). Este tiene legítimamente me confunde. Miré a este lugar esperando que me puedan resultar interesantes mapa versiones, pero descubrir hay un solo camino que aparece en OSM para que pueblo!
Coordinates:Posted by Paul Johnson at Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:50:07 +0000 in Spanish (Español)
Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
Mapping a horizontal crevasse
How do you handle streets and buildings that weren't originally underground, but now are? There appears to be a village near a faultline that suffers severely from this phenomenon ( http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/town-devoured-by-rock/10450 ). This one has me legitimately confused. I looked up this location hoping that I might find some interesting map renderings, but discover there's only a single road listed on OSM for that village!
Coordinates:Posted by Paul Johnson at Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:47:31 +0000 in English (English)
Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 3 comments
Northeast César Chávez Boulevard
While I vehemently disagree with Portland City Council's move to name a street after someone who was not, nor is now, a relevant figure in the city (heck, César Chávez has verifiably never been closer to Portland than 30 miles, and then only incidentally), I guess it's some consolation that OSM managed to publish a zero-day street name change thanks to me.
Location linked is the intersection of Place Jeanne d'Arc and the newly renamed César Chávez Boulevard, a rare Portland intersection where neither street is named in English.
Coordinates:Posted by Paul Johnson at Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:20:48 +0000 in English (English)
Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
JOSM validator and painting problems
I'm currently using JOSM to work on a section of Salem, specifically around the mall I've pinpointed on the map link below. In JOSM, the validator catches "style for outer way "xxx" mismatches" for the multipolygon around the mall. Is the multipolygon wrong or is the validator wrong?
Coordinates:Posted by Paul Johnson at Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:29:19 +0000 in English (English)
Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
Ask Slashdot: Hackable In car GPS Unit
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/06/27/2216250/Hackable-In-Car-GPS-Unit
Surely some folks here can speak up about this.
Posted by Paul Johnson at Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:55:14 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
Getting notified of local GPX uploads?
Is there a way to get an RSS feed or some kind of notification when someone uploads a new GPX within a particular bounding box?
Posted by Paul Johnson at Sun, 31 May 2009 21:09:35 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 5 comments
Creating alerter POI from OSM data
One of the things that you can do with a Garmin GPS is use waypoints as the basis to generate speed and proximity alerts (http://www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-development/fmt_garmin_gpi.html).
Anybody attempting to do this for themselves should make sure that using an automated means to warn you about enforcement measures is legal in your jurisdiction, first; I understand there are some states and countries that frown on or prohibit the practice I'm outlining. For the sake of this post, we'll assume that someone trying to do this either has no legal barrier from doing so, or understands the consequences and is taking an educated risk.
Rationale: In unfamiliar territory, it's often nice to have warning about speed limits and enforcement measures in advance, because speed limits often protect zones prone to congestion or sharp/blind curves or hills, and photo stoplight operations tend to be located at high-crash locations.
Here's some of the things I would like to do:
1) Take a given .osm, search for ways with maxspeed tags. Create waypoints at either end of the way with the name "Maximum@nn" where nn is the number equal to the maxspeed= tag, in the local unit of measure (ie, we don't care if it's km/h, mph, mach, warp, whatever). If two ways meet and have different maxspeed= tags, the lower of the two figures should be used. If one two ways meet and one has a maxspeed= tag and the other does not, the existing maxspeed= tag is used. Any spot where an enforcement relation is used to indicate a speed enforcement location should have a similar node created on the way at the enforcement location.
2) Take a given .osm, and look for relations indicating signal enforcement, similar to above. The node should be created at the traffic signal being enforced, named "Signal Enforcement."
3) Take a given .osm, and look for other hazards where advanced warning is handy because you may need to stop unexpectedly, such as border control and customs plazas, toll plazas, traffic signals on ways tagged highway=motorway or highway=motorway_link, permanent highway checkpoints, school crossings on major routes or four-way stops in rural areas. Nodes should be named descriptively.
Hopefully, this is something that is easily accomplished. I imagine I'm only missing something fairly basic in getting 2) and 3) done, but I assume 1) is going to be more tricky.
How would you do this?
Posted by Paul Johnson at Fri, 29 May 2009 22:56:37 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
Speed alert garmin POI?
You know what would be really cool, and an insanely handy tool for those troubleshooting maxspeed= tags?
Something that could take an .osm file, and create a .gpi to make the Garmin alert on maxspeed restrictions. (ie, if it's not telling you about speed limits periodically, there's no speed limit data for the area).
Practical application: Spot the surprise school zone behind the curve on that rural nowhere highway approaching a nothing town with a bored cop before you get out of the trees. 55mph to 20 with no warning on a curve or hillcrest is a surprisingly common situation on school days in rural Oregon and Washington.
Posted by Paul Johnson at Tue, 12 May 2009 05:27:32 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
Hey, Metro Police... you're doing it wrong
Let Vancouver Transit Police show you how to do it the right way: Friendly, not so Orwellian, with some kind of nod that you understand your public.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Gvta-police-ad_cropped.jpg
Coordinates:Posted by Paul Johnson at Fri, 01 May 2009 17:11:59 +0000 in English (English)
Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
Stories like this make me glad I'm expatriating
I've been trying to emigrate from the US since 1998, and stories like California Assemblyman Anderson claiming that uncensored maps are tantamount to yelling fire in a theater, and thus aren't protected speech simply appall me. I simply can't, in clear conscious, consider him or his constituents, my fellow countrymen. There needs to be an international boundary between me, and people that selfish and stupid.
And I thought impeaching a president on drummed up charges because he had a hummer on-the-clock was bad...
Posted by Paul Johnson at Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:12:48 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 4 comments
Garmin OSM maps in North America now available
I'm generating routable maps for Garmin devices supporting the gmapsupp.img, I wrote a script to bang out the areas I want and generate 'em. I'm working from planet.osm, and I use these two (Willamette Valley/Vancouver Metro) maps myself. For your convenience, I've also included the .osm files I started with.
I have to kick the script by hand, but I should be able to stay fairly up to date on it since I am eating my own dogfood and using OSM on my Garmin).
You can find the .img files and the originating .osm files at http://ursamundi.org/~baloo/osm/ (Please consider mirroring this if you are able to)
Update: I"ve given up on this since other people are clearly doing this better with less human intervention.
Posted by Paul Johnson at Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:36:33 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
Route relations and the slippymap
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation:route
I noticed that relations appear to be a much better method for tagging routes such as numbered highways, etc.; but these routes do not render in mapnik and T@H yet. Cycleways partially render on the Cycleway map, but do not include symbols.
Could we start rendering route relations with the symbols, so numbered routes are more easily tagged than tagging each member way individually, and so refs appear with the proper symbols instead of the generic squares when available?
Posted by Paul Johnson at Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:36:18 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 0 comments
The case for search and replace and/or myspell/aspell/ispell support
Yes, JOSM does have a search function. But it lacks a replace function. If you have a data set containing 1000+ ways whose names include abbreviations (such as any US county initially mapped by TIGER as I'm facing here in Marion County, Oregon), it doesn't actually save you any time. Being able to replace substrings of key values (like bulk changing " Rd " to " Road " or " Blvd " to " Boulevard " in name keys) would be extremely useful, at least to US mappers cleaning up TIGER data.
Plus, there's a lot of data in keys that aren't necessarily a name (note and comment keys come to mind forthright) where a spell checker would be especially helpful. Perhaps a speller implementation would, by default, not check name keys on ways with highway=* tags, and when enabled, warns that blindly trusting the spell checker on street names is probably a bad idea unless you have a dictionary containing the names already. This would be useful for anybody who is training (my|a|i)spell with place names, and useful for catching typos in place names for people who already have place names in their dictionaries.
Posted by Paul Johnson at Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:32:09 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 1 comment
More about JOSM spelling
I'm not suggesting that blind application of a spell checker is a good idea. Heck, it's a bad idea even in a word processor, but still a handy resource. On the other hand, if someone does have local knowledge and has or is building a dictionary of local names, then a word processor becomes extremely valuable.
Failing that, even a global search and replace function would be nice. If nothing else, something that I can search for name keys for Rd and replace it with Road, Ave and replace with Avenue, etc. since it seems the TIGER import completely violated the "never use abbreviations" principal.
Posted by Paul Johnson at Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:09:02 +0000 in English (English)Comment on this entry | Reply to this entry | 5 comments
Older Entries
