Geography and Genetics / / No Comments How closely related are the world’s populations? The Genetic Distance Map offers a fascinating way to explore that question by putting genetic similarity onto a map. Click on this map and the surrounding areas are then colored according to genetic distance. The result is a visual landscape of genetic similarity, with similar colours indicating populations that are genetically closer to one another. For most populations, the Genetic Distance Map displays smooth, concentric rings radiating outwards. In many locations, geographic distance mirrors genetic distance (e.g., clicking on central France highlights neighboring regions in Western Europe). As you might suspect populations that... more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Genetics, Geography
Building a Document Q&A System with On-Device AI / / No Comments Every now and then I build a demo for a presentation and think to myself – this deserves its own blog post. I then promptly forget to actually do that. Even better, I completely forget to even show the demo in the presentation. A few weeks ago I made my first presentation at RenderATL and gave my talk on Chrome’s on-device AI technology. I’ve been blogging about this particular set of APIs for a few years now and I’ve given talks on it at numerous conferences. While these APIs are still evolving, many of them (and the ones I’m using today in particular) are now fully GA for Chrome. For this demo, I put together a few things I’ve done before into one cohesive... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: building, Document, OnDevice, system
MapDraw: Take the Scenic Route / / No Comments MapDraw I use Organic Maps every day. Currently, I’m using it to follow the London Loop, with the route loaded as a GPX track on the map. I often get annoyed with the London Loop route – particularly when it takes me along a busy road when I can see what looks like a much more pleasant alternative just a few metres away. What I need is a simple tool that will allow me to draw my own alternative routes for the sections I don’t like and save them as GPX files, which I can then add to Organic Maps. Welcome to MapDraw. MapDraw is a browser-based map editor that allows you to import, draw and edit geographic data. So, if I decide that the official London Loop route has made a terrible... more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: MapDraw, route, Scenic, take
My Family Allowance – a Simple Allowance Tracking Site / / No Comments As you can probably tell, I’ve been on a bit of a builder kick the last few weeks. Today’s "release" (it’s been live for a few days already) is a tool to help fix a manual process we had in our family – tracking allowance for the kids. Previously we made use of a Google Sheet. Each kid had a column. When a kid would ask for something, we’d look to see when we last added allowance, multiply the number of weeks by their rate, add it, and then add another row to reduce by the amount they were spending. A simple formula on the right hand side would give a running total so they could see what their current balance was. I decided to take this manual process and... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Allowance, Family, simple, Site, Tracking
The Coffee Barista’s Maps / / No Comments Aside from maps, I would say my next biggest obsession is coffee. For the last couple of months, my favourite bean, Finca La Bolsa, has been out of season and unavailable from my local roasters. I’ve therefore been using the opportunity to experiment with beans from different regions, different taste profiles and different processing methods. For some reason, it has only just dawned on me that there might be some coffee maps I can use to help me discover new beans to add to my coffee repertoire. Map of Coffee Origins & Flavors Lightyear Coffee has produced a number of data visualizations based on data collected from coffee roasters. These include a Map of Coffee Origins &... more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Barista's, coffee, maps
Weather Nerd? Check out My OSX Radar Widget / / No Comments I know I’m not alone in being a bit of a weather nerd. Along with four or five weather apps on my phone, I’ve got two physical devices in my office that show the weather and a weather widget on my Mac that shows the day’s forecast. That’s not enough. What I really wanted was a radar widget as well, so I built one: Ok, to be fair, I used Cursor to build it – but it really scratched an itch I’ve had for a while to constantly have one more thing to distract me. If you want a copy of this yourself (or want to make it better!), I’ve set up a GitHub repo here: https://github.com/cfjedimaster/precipradar. I’ve got both the source as well as a build... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: check, Nerd, Radar, Weather, Widget
15 Minute Towns Animated / / No Comments The 15-Minute City has become one of the most influential ideas in contemporary urban planning. Popularised by urbanist Carlos Moreno, the concept is beautifully simple: cities should be designed so that people can reach the things they need for everyday life – shops, healthcare, schools, green spaces, culture and leisure – within around 15 minutes of where they live, ideally on foot or by bicycle. The Essentials is an interactive map which asks exactly that question of New York City – and beautifully visualises the answer as an animated pathfinding map. Click anywhere on The Essentials and nine animated lines immediately shoot out from your chosen location, each searching... more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Animated, Minute, Towns
(MAPS) Painting By Number / / No Comments Here’s a little thing I discovered about Chicago: the higher a street’s number, the further south it is from the city center. You can see this very clearly on North America’s Numbered Streets. This interactive map colors “all streets with a ‘#st’, ‘#nd’, ‘#rd’, or ‘#th’ in their name in North America, as drawn from OpenStreetMap.” Zoom in on a city on North America’s Numbered Streets and, if it uses a numerical street-naming convention, you’ll probably notice that the smallest numbered streets are near the center of the city, while the largest numbers stretch out into the suburbs. In most cities,... more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: maps, Number, Painting