The Future of Street View / / No Comments In 2007 Google began adding 360 degree panoramic images to Google Maps. It is no exaggeration to say that the introduction of Street View revolutionized online mapping. Now users could not only zoom into their neighborhoods in satellite view but they could also virtually explore their area in Street View.It is almost impossible to predict the next major revolution in online mapping. For a Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: future, Street, View
Upcoming Generative AI Talk by… Me! / / No Comments I don’t normally blog about upcoming conference talks, but I’m really excited to announce my first talk on generative AI, specifically Google’s Gemini will be in a few weeks at the F/ND Tech Conference. This is a free, online conference covering a wide range of topics. My talk, "Adding Generative AI to your Workflow with Google Gemini", will absolutely be appropriate for beginners (as that’s what I am) and hopefully provide a gentle introduction to working with Gen AI. Now, one point of warning – this is a Europe-based event so my talk will be… 5:45 AM on a Saturday morning, but admit it, wouldn’t you love to wake up early on a Saturday to hear... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: by..., Generative, Talk, Upcoming
Building a Chat Integration with Google Gemini / / No Comments It’s been on my queue to investigate how to use Generative AI in a ‘chat’ interface versus "one prompt and answer" mode for some time and today I finally got a chance to check it out. I’ll share my thoughts below, but once again I want to thank Allen Firstenberg for his help while I worked through some issues. As always, take what I’m sharing as the opinion of a developer still very new to this space. Any mistakes are my fault! What is GenAI chat? # Specifically, what is chat when it comes to generative AI? Nothing. Seriously. All ‘chat’ is taking your initial prompt, getting the result, then taking your next prompt and appending it. So for... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: building, Chat, Gemini, Google, integration
540 Million Years of Planet Earth / / No Comments 540 million years ago the Earth’s climate was very different from how it is today. During the Cambrian period global temperatures were warmer than they are now. It is believed there were no polar icecaps and there was likely to have been high levels of precipitation and humidity over much of the planet. Of course our world hasn’t always been so warm. The last Ice Age was during the Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Earth, Million, Planet, Years
Super Useful NPM Module – Open / / No Comments Forgive the samewhat lame title, and this will be a quick little post, but I’ve recently been using such an incredibly helpful npm module I wanted to share it with others. open by Sindre Sorhus (you must click that link and look at their incredible GitHub profile) is a simple, but powerful utility that… opens things. Ok, that sounds rather obvious, but what it means in practice is that your Node code can open a resource on your computer with the associated app. (It can also open up an app by itself if you want.) I can’t tell you how many scripts I’ve written that generate file-based results, or URL-hosted results, that I then double-click to open. This one little utility... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Module, open, Super, useful
Whose Plaque is it Anyway? / / No Comments For over 20 years I’ve wondered what the text on this plaque in East London actually says. This morning I finally decided to explore a few memorial interactive maps to see if I could discover why this bridge over Bow Creek has a plaque, and what the text on the plaque actually says. I thought it might also be a good opportunity to provide a little round-up of the growing number of memorial Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Anyway, Plaque, Whose
How to Fix: Windows WASD Keys Reversed with Arrow Keys / / No Comments This past weekend I had the opportunity to be what every father wants, if only for a moment: the “cool dad”. My wife was out of town and my youngest son wanted to play PUBG. I caved in, taught him the basic FPS key binds, and he was having a great time. While he was fragging out, he pressed a bunch of random keys and ended up changing movement buttons. Suddenly the traditional WASD movement keys were useless and the arrow keys triggered movement. Of course, this was a degradation of player experience. After struggling to figure out what my son did, I found the solution. To restore the WASD keys as movement keys, press the FN+W key combination. You’ll switch back to... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Arrow, Keys, Reversed, WASD, Windows
Weather or Not / / No Comments Do you dream of the perfect vacation weather? Sunshine on the beach, crisp mountain air, or vibrant fall foliage? Imagine a tool that helps you find the ideal destination for your desired climate, anywhere in the country and for any month of the year. This is the promise of Weather or Not, a new interactive map that leverages average weather data to recommend the best time to travel Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Weather