Open Street Map Party at MIT

Hi there,

today I was at the OSM party at MIT (http://osmbos1.eventbrite.com/). It was pretty nice starting to edit OSM database,
and knowing better about this awesome project. I started to map features on my own
little mountain village, very fun seeing how the map change in few minutes....

Perform Cost Path Analysis between two points

Today I help a student to deal with Cost Path Analysis between two points. Below some tips:

• Identify your study area (polygon layer) and use this one to cut your DEM by using Extraction by Mask function. Be sure you are working in a project coordinate system (slope requires it).
• Use the new DEM to calculate the slope raster (Slope function)
• Select only one of the two point (Point A)
• Perform a Cost Distance; as input raster enter the point layer. Make sure you build also a Back Link raster.
• Select the only the second point (Point B)
• Perform a Cost Path; as input raster enter the point layer.

XML, XPath, XQuery Harvard Class

Just forgot to tell you that since the begging of September, I have started a Xml/XPath class
at Harvard Extension School. The class is pretty tough, but so far I really enjoy my self.
By the way, I have also stared to use Amazon EC2

Google Cluster Mapping

In the last couple of moths, I have been working to implement
a google map mashup using clustering tech and the new v3 api. I decided to use php and postgis to store my dataset. finally jquery help me to implement link to map functionality.

Swiss Grid Projection

Today I have used a Swiss Grid Projection in ArcGIS to plot some data for a student.
I have got all the info from this nice site SWISSTOPO, and I ended up to have a very nice distorted map of the globe.

Python Max Value

I did it! I have just found a nice way to extract the maximum field value from a bench of records previously selected. The trick is to build up a Python list L = [], where
I can append all the selected items L.append =(row.fieldname). Next I can run max(L)
to extract the maximum value.

.....

The Greater Cairo

I have just made a quick map of the Greater Cairo...all data are coming from
Geocommunity (http://www.geocomm.com/).