Canada’s Hidden Subterranean Rivers / / No Comments Canadian cities, like many cities around the world, have a history of hiding waterways underground. As cities grow rivers can become obstacles to the movement of people, can be seen as wasted real-estate, and historically (when cities had poor sanitation) they often became open sewers. For these reasons cities often culvert and divert rivers underground.In Discover Where Ancient Rivers Flow CBC Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Canada's, hidden, Rivers, Subterranean
Live from the Sundhnúkur Eruption / / No Comments The Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland has been experiencing a period of heightened volcanic activity since December 2023. This follows an increase in seismic activity that began in late 2019. The most recent eruption started on March 16th in Sundhnúkur near the town of Grindavík.You can view a live webcam of volcanic activity in Sundhnúkur on Live from Iceland. This webcam shows a live Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Eruption, from, live, Sundhnúkur
Using Netlify Edge and Blob Support to Investigate Website Traffic / / No Comments For some time now, I’ve relied on my Netlify Analytics report to keep track of how well my site is doing, what content is popular, and so forth. I was a Google Analytics user for over ten years, but when they updated the UI, I saw red every time I tried to use it. Netlify Analytics is super simple and quick. (My only real complaint is that it’s limited to 30 days, but I’ve got free access to the feature so I’m happy to not care about that.) I complement Netlify Analytics with GoatCounter as well. Netify’s analytics show much more traffic than Goat, and I figure the truth is somewhere in the middle, and again, I’m fine with that. What’s odd though is that... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Blob, Edge, Investigate, Netlify, Support, Traffic, using, Website
The US Foreign Assistance Map / / No Comments The US government’s Foreign Assistance website provides detailed information and data on U.S. foreign assistance programs. The website serves as a central platform for transparency and accountability in U.S. foreign aid efforts. It also provides a fascinating insight into the shifting geo-political ambitions of the United States over the last 75 years.The Foreign Assistance Dashboard reveals Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Assistance, foreign
A Quick First Look at Amazon Bedrock (with Node.js) / / No Comments My regular readers (hello, yall rock!) know I’ve been playing with generative AI the past few months. I’m still a bit skeptical about the amount of hype involved around the space, but I’m slowly getting more excited as I see some of the interesting possibilities available with these tools. Most of my recent exploration has been on the Google Gemini side, but after hearing my buddy Todd Sharp talk about Amazon Bedrock on his stream yesterday, I figured it was time to check it out. (FYI, you should absolutely check out his weekly Twitch show on the AWS Twitch channel called "Streaming on Streaming" – Wednesdays at 3PM CST.) Getting Started # So obviously, you want... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Amazon, Bedrock, first, Look, Node.js, Quick
Playing Placename Detective / / No Comments The British Placenames Mapper is an interactive map which allows you to search for patterns in British placenames. The map uses ‘regular expressions’ to find defined text patterns within placenames. These text patterns could be prefixes used at the beginning of a name (eg ‘Great’ or ‘Little’), suffixes used at the end of a name (eg ‘ford’ or ‘mouth’), or even patterns that occur anywhere within a Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Detective, Placename, Playing
All Your Dragons Are Belong To Us / / No Comments Forgive the somewhat silly title, but it’s not like I haven’t been silly here before. Almost four years ago I wrote a little post about a random text-generated app called the "Queen Maker": Let’s Make Everyone a Queen!. The idea for that app (which lives on at queenof.netlify.app) was to use a random text library called Tracery to generate random short "queen-based" stories. Yeah, that may not make much sense, but read the earlier post or play with the app to see. The important bit though was that it was inspired by a cool Twitter bot called Dragon Hoards. This bot, like many "fun" bots, is now dead, but it still makes me smile when I think about... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Belong, Dragons
Get Started in AI and NFTs with the Limewire API (Sponsored) / / No Comments AI media creation has expanded to incredible video art and a host of other important improvements, and LimeWire is leading the way in creating an awesome interface for the average user to become an AI artist. Limewire has just released its Developer API, a method for engineers like us to create dynamic AI art on the fly! Quick Hits Free to sign up! Provides methods to create a variety of quality images from any number of AI services and algorithms Create images based on text and other images Modify existing images to scale them, remove backgrounds, and more Use JavaScript, PHP, Python, or any of your favorite languages Documentation is clean and easy to understand Very easy to get started A... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: LimeWire, NFTs, Sponsored, started