2007 September 07

A free Canada-wide 1:50,000 elevation model.

This project was in preparation of sending a Canada-wide elevation model to Google Earth and NASA World Wind. It was completed a couple of years ago, although the data is not yet generally available through those tools — thus the reason for hosting it here:~~http://sydney.freeearthfoundation.com/mattwilkie/draft/canada_50k_dem~~\ (thank you Adam Nowaki and the Free Earth Foundation!).

note: hostname has changed tohttp://s1.static.tileservice.net/mattwilkie/draft/canada_50k_dem/

The data are marked draft because only a very preliminary review of the resulting mosaick has been done. There is no guarantee the data is complete or faithfully represents it’s source. I am interested feedback on the product and it’s utility but I make no promises …continue.

now open for public beta, a vendor neutral Q&A site for programmers, DBAs, Cartographers, Geographers and anyone interested in GIS professionally

http://gis.stackexchange.com/

Come aboard and help build an information-rich community based gis technical support site.

Attached is a printable version of the Stack Exchange editing help page, formatted for a tabloid (11"x17") page size, in MS Word 2003 and PDF format. CC attribution-share-a-like license.

Sometimes a download is halted, perhaps closing a laptop lid, and normal resumedoesn't work. Here is a fix courtesy of orion188:

1. You have two files on the destination folder. One with the original name and one with an extra ".PART" extension. Move both of these files to some other folder (Move! not copy)
2. Start your download again from the beginning (you have access to the download link, don't you?)
3. Let it download a few bytes, just to have those two files created again, with the exact same name. Now PAUSE this download.
4. Go to …continue.

how to convert videos into a format understood by my standalone divx-compliant dvd player (yamaha dvd-s661).

Avidemux

Set video to MPEG-4 ASP, audio to MP3, format to AVI, and save.

If low quality input, e.g. from VCR tape, resize to 352x480 under filters. Play with the Auto settings (PSP,Ipod) for easy adding of black borders etc.

Make sure to test audio is still in sync by fast forwarding to near end of video and watching & listening for a bit, in another application and on the player.

ffmpeg

This simple line below took hours and hoursto figure out, spread over many days. sheesh.

ffmpeg -i infile.avi -vcodec mpeg4 -vtag divx -sameq out.avi

A more evolved …continue.

A japanese "Kung Fu Bear" video has been circulating. I got curious about this history of this animal and managed to unearth a few tidbits. I may have some details wrong as I relied on google translate and there are multiple bears talked about on the same page at the Asa Zoological Park (in english).

In September 2002, about 70km(?) northwest of Hiroshima a mother Asiatic Black Bear with two cubs were marauding crops. Unavoidably the sow had to be shot. The surviving 13kg cub was too small to survive on his own and at the request of Hiroshima Prefecture was handed over to Asa Zoological Park for protection where he …continue.

or, How to be my own bank.

To date we've been keeping our finances parceled out into a series of accounts, separated according to intended use: monthly expenses, savings for investment, savings for renovations, his, hers, kids, etc. It would make more sense (and cents) if these various accounts were merged into a single account to take advantage of cumulative interest. I did try this for awhile, and kept track of how much was in each category using a spreadsheet. However I wasn't very good at keeping it synchronised or up to date and it fell into disuse. Part of this was due to the constant mental friction of …continue.

This is for a virgin system without python etc installed. Skip any step not needed. Consider this a placeholder. Eventually this page or something like it will be folded into the Leo docs and this will be irrelevant.

lightly updated April 2013

1. Install Python 2.x - There are many sources, but from http://www.python.org/download/releases/ is good.

2. Install PyQt - acquire and run Binary Package from http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/software/pyqt/download which matches installed Python version (so for python 2.7 scan for the Py2.7 in filename)

3. Install Leo

4. Head to http://sourceforge.net/projects/leo/ and slap [Download Now]

5. You can unpack the .zip file anywhere, including Python’s site-packages folder, for example, C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\leo-4-10-final

6. [optional] Generate/update …continue.

a work in progress

guide: http://developer.mindtouch.com/en/kb...ctory_on_Linux

linux: debian etch (4.0)\ windows: active directory (server 2003?)

Ensure the computer name/hostname/netbios name is the same, else there will be all kinds of wierd problems:

/etc/hosts
/etc/hostname
/etc/samba/smb.conf

Bugfix for adobe reader always trying to read a document out loud when a tablet is connected. Go to which ever exists:

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\plug_ins
%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\plug_ins

and

move accessibility.api accessibility.api.disabled
move readoutloud.api readoutloud.api.disabled

Source:

The "Reading Untagged Document" prompt indicates that Acrobat has detected assistive technology on your computer -- perhaps a screen reader or speech recognition software. Thus Acrobat/Reader is preparing the document for this device -- unfortunately without asking first.\ \ The bad news is that you can't disable it through an Acrobat Preference setting. You can decrease the frequency via Edit --> Preferences --> Reading Panel Screen Reader options: Only read the currently visible pages.\ \ Another option is to disable the …continue.