[meteorite-list] Simple mapping software? (A little OT)

[mexicodoug]

Hi Mark, Marco, and others who enjoyed the Parker Bros. Napoleonic "Risk" 
game as kids*,

Been playing around with this "DIY Map" software (macromedia based) since 
Mark first posted.  I think I like the Meteorite bulletin - USGS Google 
Earth interface better, and would encourage you to check into the features 
of Google Earth allowing you to do 'kewl' stuff.

But this DIY Map would do the trick for putting your collection on-line 
impressively, or taking the results in screen capture stills.  The reason 
Wold Cottage is in the Sea is because I used the coordinates of the USGS-MB 
site, and Wold is incorrectly listed as an eastern longitude on that site 
(Dr. Grossman...sorry to bother you if you could change that to west).

The Map is zoomable, lat/lon coordinate friendly and icon friendly for a 
cute meteorite for example and changes tone as you mouse over.

http://www.glorietamountain.com/

I made an example for the list's viewing pleasure with all of the witnessed 
falls recorded in the UK and Ireland (link above).  I colored the countries, 
put a yellow dot at the coordinates of each witnessed fall, and furthermore 
sized the dot based on the TKW.  A sort of recovered meteorite population 
density concept for anyone who wants to cruise to Great Britian on holiday 
and pick up a few meteorites laying around.  When you scroll over the dot I 
made it say the location and the fall year.  I made it clickable so 
cursoring over the individual countries identifies the country, and clicking 
on them zooms in on the country.  You can take over the whole world nicely 
with you meteorite collection, but the UK/Ireland was enough for me this 
afternoon.

My attempt was quick and I'm not a programmer, so if I dedicated more time 
it could have had all kinds of bells and whistles into this, like cursor 
over the world and have a link on each dot opening the MB-USGS database 
page, my pictures, cutie meteorite icons, etc.  Or I could have done it to 
help IMCA members worldwide hook up with the masses ... just kidding.
http://www.glorietamountain.com/

Just it is a terribly unfriendly interface - but it works superbly and is 
extremely powerful, not to mention it's generously free for all kinds of 
use.  Lets you color countries and puts lots of things in them and can do 
coordinates and the zooming/interactive functions are great.  Note the maps 
can even be resized.  Price is right - free...and if you want to invest the 
time in cutting, pasting and configuring the files as required, it really is 
powerful and results are very professional and multilevel (states, 
countries, regions).  Also can manages lat/lon to some degree if you have 
the patience to figure it out looks like you will be rewarded with great 
results.

http://drupal.org/project/diymap

Other than this sort of software, if you want to do better than Excel, MS 
Access (with Microsoft Offie professional) makes real professional databases 
where you can link pictures and all kinds of customized queries (it is a 
great tool for real estate listings and photo employee databases).

Best wishes, Doug
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_(game)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marco Langbroek" <marco.langbroek at wanadoo.nl>
To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 7:51 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Simple mapping software? (A little OT)


> Hi Mark,
>
> Browse around a bit on http://www.sourceforge.net which is a well known 
> large repository of open source software for all kinds of things. There is 
> certainly mapping software on there (search with keywords like "map" 
> and/or "gps" I suggest).
>
> - Marco
>
> -----
> Dr Marco Langbroek
> Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)
>
> e-mail: meteorites at dmsweb.org
> DMS website: http://www.dmsweb.org
> private website: http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
> -----
>
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