So its been over six months since I made my first tutorial post about PostGIS. I now use PostGIS on a regular basis and thought it would be good to update the tutorial with some meat on how to use PostGIS.
Get some data and import it
Grab populated places points
wget http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/nationalatlas/citiesx020.tar.gz
Grab US counties map:
wget http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/nationalatlas/countyp020.tar.gz
Lots more data available in the National Atlas
Continue reading ‘Getting to know PostGIS Part II’
I was needing to install MacPorts on a multi-user system where I didn’t have root access. Here is what I did.
mkdir ${HOME}/macports
cd ${HOME}/macports
wget http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/downloads/MacPorts-1.6.0/MacPorts-1.6.0.tar.gz
tar -xzvf MacPorts-1.6.0.tar.gz
cd MacPorts-1.6.0
./configure --prefix=${HOME}/macports --with-tclpackage=${HOME}/macports/tcl \
--with-install-user=${USER} --with-install-group=${USER}
make
make install
You will now have a macports directory in your home directory:
$ ls macports
bin etc include lib libexec man sbin share src tcl var www
Add ${HOME}/macports/bin to your path and you’ll be able to run “port install *portname*” ports you install will get installed in your home directory. Handy for any little tools you need to have available that might not be built on the system you’re using.
OGR is a part of GDAL and is very useful for converting between geospatial vector formats. What does that mean? When storing Vector GIS data there are a dizzying number of formats it can be stored in, some of the more popular of late, or at least well known are KML and SHP. A friend of a friend was looking to convert some SHP (Shapefiles) into KML so that he could make a Google Maps mashup and I helped him out. Here is a workflow for how I went about performing the conversion.
Continue reading ‘Using OGR to convert GIS Vector formats’
I started working on my PhD proposal and decided that it would be best done as a wiki. I have been using MoinMoin for a wiki in my lab with my labmates. I like MoinMoin, but I don’t like how much of a pain it is to install it on debian. I decided to go back to mediawiki as it seems to be performing a bit better these days and is increasingly the standard wiki markup. So I have a mediawiki set up now for tracking my research, my reading and my PhD proposal. I might even get really brave and do my whole dissertation in wiki form.
Continue reading ‘Wikifying my life’
Synergy is a network KVM. It is great if you have multiple computers. I have a setup with a Powerbook, WinXP and Ubuntu Laptop all controlled by the same keyboard and mouse (across four screens) merged together into one desktop. It is a beautiful thing… Some simple config examples after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Synergy’
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