Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
After the success of getting Gig Taggr up and running, I thought I’d dust off another little tool I worked on ages ago. Tube Mappr was a very basic experiment for me to explore the Flickr and Google Maps APIs. It’s not ‘useful’ in the way that Gig Taggr is, nor is it anywhere near as complex, but it was fun at the time.
I came across map data for the London Underground over at Wikimedia Commons one day, and, coupled with the (then) recent full-scale rollout of geotagging support on Flickr, I had the idea for Tube Mappr. It’s a simple script that plots Tube stations on a map, and clicking on a station displays random Flickr photos tagged with the name of the station.
The curious thing which I’m now realising is that Tube Mappr makes absolutely no use of the Flickr geo stuff (neither data nor functionality), but i’m pretty sure it was part of the motive.
http://tubemappr.ebotunes.com
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
This is an app i’ve been wanting to build for a while now, but was held back for a couple of reasons. The usual lack of time, but also some shortcomings in the Last.FM API
The main purpose off the application is to allow people who use Last.FM and Flickr to easily tag their photos with the relevant machine tags. Almost ever since Last.FM started doing event listings (I think), they’ve offered a feature allowing users to feed their own gig photos onto the Event page.
More recently, Flickr decided to complement this feature by displaying a link to Last.FM on the photo page whenever a machine tag exists. This prompted one of the Flickr devs to blog about it which, in turn, prompted me to get my finger out and finish Gig Taggr! [UPDATE: also looks like one of the Last.FM devs mentioned it too!
The main thing that had been holding it back was the lack of an API method to get a user’s past events. This was easily solved by asking for it. Thanks again to vincro and joanofarctan!
As an added bonus, Gig Taggr also lets you geotag the photos while you’re at it, based on the venue location info given by Last.FM. Cashback!
http://gigtaggr.ebotunes.com
Photos tagged using Gig Taggr
http://www.last.fm
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
With only a few weeks left in London before I move back home to Glasgow, I thought I should fill my time with something quintessentially ‘London’ (thats the first time i’ve used that word, I’m uncertain at best..we’ll see how it goes). For the past year or so I’ve carried my camera with me pretty much everywhere I go, never wanting to miss a good photo opportunity and looking to boost the interestingness of my Flickr photostream.
I’ve always been impressed with Banksy’s stencil graffiti art, but for some reason never had the inclination (nevermind the time) to purposely go in search of it. That is until a few months ago, when I discovered the big yellow flower one is just round the corner from my house - so that got me started. Not long after that we stumbled across the Tesco flag one on Essex Road (which we must have passed a bunch of times, but always waliking in the other direction!).
So now that Ive got some time to kill I’ve started on the purposeful search thing. Despite a plethora of lists and maps and photos all over the web, it has proved difficult to find one definitive, reliable, accurate list of existing Banksy’s artwork. Some have been ‘vandalised’, painted over, removed by local councils. Some have even been auctioned and removed along with the wall they’re painted on! Initially I planned to plot an entire tour of London and set off on my bike to cover it all in a day, but then it came apparent there were pockets of them not too far from home, then i tried to fix my bike and made it worse so it turned into several long walks instead.
One sunny Saturday afternoon I jotted down a list of a few locations around Brick Lane. Either I didnt look hard enough or they’re all gone now. I did end up wandering past the yellow flower one though and found that someone had scrawled some nonsense over the top.
On Monday I had to go into town so it was an ideal time to finally snap his newest ‘One Nation Under CCTV’ piece. Since the weather was decent I thought I’d walk the length of Oxford Street and try and hunt down another older one near Marble Arch. So this turned out quite a productive trip, much more so than the Brick Lane jaunt! Since then I’ve decided the most reliable source of information is from Flickr photo geotags and EXIF data. Sifting through the Banksy pool, I can check for locations on the map, and then check the ‘Taken on…’ date to see if it’s recent and most likely still there. I reckon there’s still a few more good ones out there to find, so keep an eye on my Banksy set on Flickr to see how it goes.
And to those who would criticise my ‘quintessential London’ comment, yes I know that Banksy’s art has appeared in Bristol, Brighton and other places all over the world, and I don’t have that ‘London-is-the-centre-of-the-universe’ complex - but he’s done a LOT in London, and certainly none in Glasgow.
My Banksy set on Flickr
Banksy on Wikipedia
Banksy’s website
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
Today I attempted my first proper cycling commute since the Lewisham move. Although in my typical disorganised fashion, I did it the hard way. Leaving from Fiona’s in the morning instead of my house (+2 miles), and having to go to college in the evening instead of just straight home (+6 miles).
The morning wasn’t too bad, I’d estimated about an hour, had the route pretty clear in my head and left plenty of time to get to work reasonably early in time to grab a shower. Half an hour later I was still only as far as London Bridge, but the traffic through the city was mental so I knew that had taken longer than it should’ve. As I crossed the Thames, passing the hoards of people with feet pounding towards their offices, I couldn’t help but think of pigeon racing and the Great North Run, and ended up singing the Geordie Racer theme tune for the rest of the journey.
Plain sailing from there down through Borough, along the Old Kent Road through Peckham and on to New Cross. Pretty much just following the Number 21 bus route, slightly apprehensive about having to tackle Amersham Way, which shall henceforth be known as The Hill of Death. But such is life, what goes up must come down, and I sailed down the steep-but-safe-enough-to-enjoy decline of Lewisham Way, for a glorious arrival at the work just on the hour mark.
Knowing that the next leg, from Lewisham all the way to Caledonian Road was an extra couple of miles, I really should have adjusted my time accordingly, but I left with 1h 10mins to spare. I didn’t fancy going all the way back up Lewisham Way from a standing start, so decided to take a detour and just follow my sense of direction and take reassurance from the ‘towards…’ signs on the bus stops. This was working out pretty well and I eventually found myself joining Old Kent Road about halfway up. I tried to cut across and take a more direct route toward London Bridge, closer to the river, but hit a dead end and had to go back and face O.K.R. (thats my hip new slang term for it). My determination took me a closer and closer to the Thames Path, and I struck gold - GOLD I say.
To be honest I’d never really taken much interest in Tower Bridge, but it looked pretty impressive as I cycled past at dusk. So that was another few minutes added on to my journey time for taking a few pictures.
Again, getting through the City was a bit of a slog, and I probably could have picked a better route, but I was still just following my nose at this stage. I seemed to be making pretty good time as well, considered my dead end at OKR and my scenic detour along the Thames Path. Still no chance I was making it to college for half 6 though. About halfway the steady mile-long slope of Caledonian Road I had to admit defeat and walk for a bit, but still a decent effort.
After some dinner and rest at college, all that remained was the usual jaunt home, but even that proved a bit too much and my legs gave in just after Brick Lane. Late shift tomorrow I think!
