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#121069 - 15/10/2002 21:51 Anyone else we can screen-scrape?
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
Very impressed with the GPSapp. Lots of nice little touches.

Not impressed with MapsOnUs, but that's not the software's fault.

So is there any other web-based mappers we can screen-scrape to get perhaps better data than MapsOnUs supplies?
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#121070 - 16/10/2002 15:07 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: tfabris]
image
old hand

Registered: 28/04/2002
Posts: 770
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
a quick search of GPS on freshmeat.net yielded a lot of open source software that we can look at, the most promising being gpsdrive. it downloads maps from Expedia and Mapblast and can fetch it from the net automatically, using scripts.


Edited by iMaGe (16/10/2002 15:07)

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#121071 - 16/10/2002 15:14 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: image]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
Cool. I looked at both Expedia and MapBlast, but they didn't seem to give lat/long coordinates on the web. Perhaps I wasn't looking in the right place.

But if one could use the MapBlast site for the source data, that's gotta be better than the MapsOnUs data. In the few tests I did, MapBlast gave me much better and more accurate directions that MapsOnUs.
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Tony Fabris

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#121072 - 16/10/2002 15:24 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: image]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
I don't believe that gpsdrive implements giving directions. I think it just plots where you are on a graphical map.

Edit: Or, rather, that's all it does with the maps from Expedia, et al. You have to program your own waypoints.


Edited by wfaulk (16/10/2002 15:26)
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#121073 - 16/10/2002 15:28 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: image]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
gpsdrive doesn't do direction finding, it uses those sites to grab raster images from and plots your position and route on those. search the bbs for gpsdrive, I'm pretty sure i explained this before.

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#121074 - 16/10/2002 20:15 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: image]
genixia
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 08/02/2002
Posts: 3411
Yeah, I found some moving map software called Hugo

Unfortunately there's no screenshots so I'm having to build it to find out what it does...
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#121075 - 16/10/2002 20:17 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: genixia]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
Don't bother with Hugo. I used to maintain it. At this point, I recommend Xastir (and don't use the amateur radio features) because it supports more map types, and supports them better.

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#121076 - 16/10/2002 20:18 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: genixia]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
Oh right. I'm still the maintainer.

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#121077 - 16/10/2002 21:48 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: Daria]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
The best raw data I've seen so far has been the Vicinity corp maps, the ones that MapBlast uses.

I noticed that there is a "Download to PDA" button on the MapBlast screen. Does the "Mapblast.PQA" file that it provides contain the necessary information, or is it just a screen shot of the map?
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Tony Fabris

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#121078 - 16/10/2002 22:09 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
You know, it makes me wonder.

If the TripPilot people can strike a deal with Vicinity, why can't we? The entire empeg community would amount ot a very low-usage group of downloads compared to their other customers...
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Tony Fabris

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#121079 - 17/10/2002 04:24 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: tfabris]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
Does the "Mapblast.PQA" file that it provides contain the necessary information, or is it just a screen shot of the map?

It included a list of text directions (not coordinates) as far as I could tell.

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#121080 - 18/10/2002 13:15 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
Doe this have any bearing on what we're doing with empeg-based mapping?
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Tony Fabris

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#121081 - 18/10/2002 14:01 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: tfabris]
jaharkes
enthusiast

Registered: 20/08/2002
Posts: 340
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
How open is this anyway, it has a 'members only' link on the frontpage.

But in a way it is probably related, but it also isn't. GIS application are interesting in things like mapping an address to a location, and graphically combining various 'layers' of information in a geographic region.

But they typically don't care whether it's a one way street your driving through, and what the fastest way to get there from here is.
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#121082 - 20/10/2002 04:24 Re: Anyone else we can screen-scrape? [Re: tfabris]
Warp10
member

Registered: 18/02/2002
Posts: 179
Loc: Germany
Is there really no way for germans to get routing with gps coordinates via the internet?
I've also read that jaharkes is planning to use Tiger maps for live navigation. Is something available in the same format for germany?
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