User:Higgy
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Who?
I'm Tom, although I'm generally known as Higgy.
My interests include web development, open source/creative commons, P2P technologies, music and the sport of equestrian vaulting.
Where?
I'm from Birmingham but work in Shrewsbury. I have previously lived just outside Wrexham (for work) and for several years on the outskirts of Shrewsbury. I've been doing mapping of all three of these places.
I'm also been mapping various other places, including:
- Wolverhampton and (west/central) Birmingham, West Midlands
- Stamford, Lincolnshire
- Shrewsbury, Shropshire
- Mold, Wrexham and in between, Flintshire
- Stalham, Norfolk
- Ashford (Willesborough), Kent
- Worcester, Worcestershire
- New Forest
- Bournemouth, Dorset
How?
I first heard about the OSM project through FreeThePostcode, which I heard about on Pledgebank. I intended to use postcodes in a very limited way on my website, bandnet.org, to provide a listing of events happening within a particular area. I'm on a limited budget and am not able to afford the full PAF. Even a free database down the first character of the inbound part of the postcode is enough for my usage, and is what the npemap project is now going a long way towards providing.
Kit
I have a BGT-11 GPS (NaviGPS with Bluetooth) that I bought especially to join in with OSM. Although I sometimes fail to get a lock when in a moving vehicle, such as a bus, I generally find it's OK in cars, on foot, bike and on trains as long as it's held close to the window. I sometimes even manage to get a lock indoors, albeit a fairly weak one.
I've found a way of recording traces while looking fairly inconspicuous on public transport. As I used to get funny looks holding the GPS against the window (although a good way to spread the word about OSM) I've taken to putting it in the arm pocket of my coat and resting my arm against the window. It seems to work as long as I sit on the left side on the vehicle so I'm not trying to cross my arm over!
I'm a Ubuntu Linux user, both at home and at work. I occasionally run Windows XP when I need to use Photoshop properly (which doesn't quite work properly in Wine yet).
Doing
Node density
One of the things I've been doing with the OSM data is generating an image from all the nodes in the UK (see below). Part of this image was used as a featured image on the wiki homepage from 11-18th November. These renders are done by importing the planet.osm file into MySQL and then using a PHP script I wrote to plot all the nodes based on lat/lon.
I'm now rendering these images daily (following the daily changesets) and uploading here: http://postcodes.osm.bandnet.org/renders/
CanvOSM
I've been working on rendering OSM data directly in the user's browser using Canvas (appears to be FF2/Safari only).
A very early demo can be seen at http://osm.bandnet.org/browse/canvas.html
Data is retrieved using AJAX so switching location is simply a matter of loading a new set of XML. Making it 'slippy' would be a nice feature but one that will require a good algorithm for caching data on redrawing.
The intention is to create an interface by which the user can easily choose what, and how, features are shown without having to prerender new tiles. Another is to create a basic interface for easily editing tags without needing any special software.
Getting in touch
I can be found on IRC (#osm) occasionally, MSN at trctws@ntlworld.com (NOT my email address!), or contacted through my talk page. If you need to email me privately, try the abbreviation of openstreetmap at bandnet dot org.
Mind the 'oss road!
