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iPhone Geolocation Bookmarklets

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:33:15 GMT

Very few websites have implemented the new javascript GPS geolocation features that were intruduced with HTML 5. However, there are a few sites that use latitude and longitude directly in their URLs.

I first wanted a quick way to get my current latitude and longitude while looking at Heavens Above. It’s a great site that allows you to find visible satellites based upon your current location. Here’s the bookmarklet that I created:

javascript:navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(g){c=g.coords;z=c.altitude;z=z?z:0;d=new Date(2009,0,1,0,0,0,0).toLocaleString().substr(-3,3);window.location="http://www.heavens-above.com/?lat="+c.latitude+"&lng="+c.longitude+"&alt="+z+"&loc=iPhone&tz="+d;},function(){alert("Permission denied.")});

Copy this to your bookmarks, and then when accessed on an iPhone, it will directly load the site with your current location entered!

I had to jump through several hoops here. When the altitude is not available (when only using cell-tower triangulation), the javascript code returns null. The website only supports numeric values, so z=z?z:0 replaces the null with a 0. Secondly, the website needs the local timezone, but unfortunately it only accepts a small subset of the three letter codes (and not the numeric offset from UTC). Even worse, the daylight savings version of the code (EDT/CDT/MDT/PDT) are unsupported – the site just assumes that you follow the trend (sorry Arizona). So I grab the code from January 1, 2009 (when daylight savings is not in effect), and parse the three letter code from that string.

For most sites, you’d only need something of the form (The NOAA’s weather forecast, for example):

javascript:navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(g){c=g.coords;window.location="http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat="+c.latitude+"&lon="+c.longitude;},function(){alert("Permission denied.")});

Now if only I could find a way to save the javascript bookmark to the Home Screen, I’d be set!

Minor Truetype Font Editing on a Mac

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:36:03 GMT

With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft included six new fonts that they commissioned for the occasion. They are the new defaults for Vista and Office. They’ve also made them available for Mac through Office as well as a handful of free (as in beer) utilities. I got them by following these instructions.

These new modern fonts are explicitly designed for display on computer screens with ClearType. Although Apple has a different philosophy on font rendering, the same basic premise is used in OS X. Besides all that (or, rather, because of it) these fonts are very pretty.

But there’s a problem, and you can see it in the image above. When packaging these fonts up for the Mac, Microsoft goofed on the baseline for Consolas. The icon previews below show it much more obviously.

In short: it’s annoying. And wrong. And the fix is after the break.

…Worth a million campaign promises

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:54:14 GMT

Every once and a while, someone figures out a creative and astute way to represent the data behind some of those talking points. Here are a few I’ve run across over the past few months:

Whose taxes?

Drill, Baby, Drill.

All those overpriced “overhead” projectors

The Blues

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 00:30:11 GMT

Dad and Ben came down to Chicago for the Blues Festival. It was quite a blast, and dad put up some of the pictures on his website. Boy, did they wear me out! I tell ya’ — it’s a lot of work bouncing around the city every day!

On the LSD

Tue, 29 May 2007 00:33:27 GMT

Well, not quite. This picture is on my way home from biking the Lake Shore Drive. It was wet and rainy until they kicked us off the road, at which point the sun immediately emerged and the clouds completely cleared from the sky. I got two flats, as well. (The first was from a shard of glass, which I fixed with the spare I brought along. I went to the bike-fixing-station to get it pumped up, and the guy there promptly broke the valve.) Even so, it was great to get back on the bike and just cruise without interruption.

And yes, I am missing a tooth.

Adding an OptiBay to my MacBook Pro

Sat, 26 May 2007 21:14:43 GMT

Well, I finally decided to risk voiding my warranty for the luxury of double the disk space. I have a 160GB hard drive installed in my MacBook, but I’m constantly squeezed for space. I never use my internal CD drive (the last time was over two months ago… and it was actually my house-mate that needed it), so the thought of occasionally using an external CD drive is much more pleasant than lugging an external HD around all the time.

MCE Technologies sells a decent-looking package called OptiBay for a little too much money that takes the internal optical drive and replaces it with a Hard Drive. You can do it on most any Mac laptop. I searched around online quite a bit for reviews and experiences, but it seems as though nobody has done a formal review. So, I figured I’d photograph and document my experience as I went.

Lies, Lies!

Mon, 21 May 2007 02:04:01 GMT

What a blast. A few months ago, Jesse and I managed to grab some of the last tickets for the Arcade Fire shows in Chicago. Not kidding — I searched for singles immediately after we got our pair (others were interested in going, too), but none were to be had. The concert was last night, and what a show it was. I am continually impressed by their musicianship; I can’t count the number of instruments they bounced between. Even a Bass Saxophone made an appearance.

It’s always refreshing to get out and be reminded how live music is supposed to sound. And the Chicago Theatre is gorgeous (we even had fancy box seats).

The Temporary Crowns

Sat, 19 May 2007 12:41:26 GMT

Here’s the after photo. The dentist on Thursday fitted me with temporary crowns, so I really haven’t been walking around with a big hole in my mouth. For a temporary quick fix, I’m pretty impressed. They don’t quite match, and boy do they feel weird. My nerves from the old teeth were removed, so they really don’t hurt at all.

That said, I certainly am not going to be eating any caramel apples anytime soon. Or anything that I have to bite off with my front teeth, for that matter.

Yesterday at work someone mentioned that I should just screw the replacement implants and just go for a grill. I think it’s a marvelous idea (thanks for lending them to me, Nelly). Insurance will cover that, right?

Ouch.

Thu, 17 May 2007 23:29:20 GMT

Well, I wiped out. Hard (see pic).

A Brighter Shade of Fuchsia: 2,000 Miles!

Mon, 14 May 2007 23:20:08 GMT

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Yesterday afternoon I took the time to take apart my bicycle and clean it thoroughly. It had probably been over a year since I had given it a complete overhaul, and it was definitely showing. The grime was plastered on thick; the rims were dirty and the chain was noisy and the wheels were out of true. It’s absolutely ridiculous how much of Chicago ends up on my bicycle.

The proof is in the pudding — today I took it out to go to work, and I just about flew over my handlebars when I hit the brakes for the first time. What a difference it made getting that grime off the rims. And, for the first time I can remember, I averaged over 17 miles per hour on my way to work without a tailwind.

It was good timing, too. I’ve been trying to hit 2000 miles in one year (That’s averaging 40 miles a week for all seasons of the year, including winter!). I arrived in Chicago last year just in time for Bike the Drive, and I started my odometer at the beginning of the ride, so this year’s event (I just registered — I can’t wait!) was my deadline.