A major disappointment
I in truth wanted to like this book, exceptionally after all the glowing reviews it received. But the book has rudimentary flaws in structure, topics, and approach:
- As somebody else mentions, the book is heavily, even though not exclusively, skewed towards Unix applications. Given that only 3% of desktops presently run Unix (6% if you're generous and include MacOS X), this without delay raises an availability barrier for those unfamiliar with the intricacies of Unix, and an unfamiliarity with Perl, Python, and shells. There are numerous Windows mapping apps that do much of what is described in this book far more without apparent effort and accessibly than the Unix-oriented solutions presented.
- Critical topics are specified incompletely and haphazardly. For example, while shapefiles are cited in assorted places early on, the introductory even barely-adequate definition comes various hundred pages into the text. Datums are covered very poorly, and given their importance in real-life applications, that's merely not acceptable.
- A substantial fraction of the book is handed over to a discussion of dissimilar kinds of projections, and programs that will display them. While interesting, the fact is that most of the utile selective information regarding projections may be gotten from the text, or from a internetsite that discusses projections; the "hacks" are fundamentally superfluous. I'm likewise troubled by the amount of space given to projections vs. datums. In my experience, more humans run into mapping issues with datums (e.g. using GPS units in WGS84, and marveling why they don't match up with topo maps in NAD27) than they do with projections.
- A huge chunk of the book is taken up GRASS. GRASS is very powerful, and as much fun to learn and use as sticking red-hot knitting needles into your eyes. Most of the difficulties that GRASS is employed to solve in the book could far more without apparent effort be solved either with other freeware programs, or with Manifold GIS if you've got the money. For that matter, other difficult-to-use programs are employed to solve tasks that could be done more without apparent effort with other programs (SPLAT! rather of MicroDEM or RadioMobile for broadcast coverage; POV-Ray for 3-D models rather of 3DEM/Landserf/MicroDEM/Wissenbach3D; GRASS for map texturing rather of 3DEM or MicroDEM; PERL for spatial selective information analysis rather of GeoDA/STARS/PASSAGE; and so on). You could spend huge amounts of time getting a "GRASS Ninja", as the book suggests, or you could spend less time and get more done using other software that's far requiring little effort to use.
- Sloppy terminology. For example, "Georeferencing" is employed to refer to both linking digital photos to the emplacement they were taken (should be "geotagging"), as well as it is normal use in cartography, associating geographic coordinates with raster or vector features. And a GeoTIFF is not a Tiff with a world file, it's a Tiff with the georeferencing selective information embedded in it.
- A book of "hacks" must incorporate complete, self-contained hacks, and any number of hacks in this book don't fulfill this requirement. For example, the hacks on WMS/WFS, PostGIS, and building your own car computer/navigation scheme are either not complete or hopelessly inadequate in giving you the selective information you need to utilize them.
- Many of the hacks have been superseded by recent developments, like Google Maps/Earth, and the APIs from Yahoo and MSNLocal. This distinctly isn't the authors' fault, but it does lessen the overall value of the book.
I could go on, but you get the idea. I have no idea of who the writers and publisher believe is the intended audience for the book, but unless you've got both a strong cartographic background and a strong Unix background, most of these hacks will be beyond you. And if you are strong in cartography and Unix, few of these hacks are even worth bothering with, since you'll most likely either know them, or know a better way to get them done. There are a few nuggets of utile information, primarily in the GPS section, but for most people, this book plainly isn't worth the money.
Value for beginners and experienced mappers alike...
I found another book that's splendid if you're into maps and software that produces them... Mapping Hacks - Tips & Tools for Electronic Cartography by Schuyler Erle, Rich Gibson, and Jo Walsh (O'Reilly). You may have a lot of fun with this one...
Contents: Mapping Your Life; Mapping Your Neighborhood; Mapping Your World; Mapping (on) the Web; Mapping with Gadgets; Mapping on Your Desktop; Names and Places; Building the Geospatial Web; Mapping with Other People; Index
What's nice regarding this book is that it's not all when it comes to installing numerous big mapping software package and then learning how to use it. Mapping Hacks covers a wide array of mapping techniques, tricks, and hacks that may be employed by any person more than willing to sit down and try things out. For instance, the original hack (#1 - Put a Map on It) shows you how to use the online mapping services and how to hack together a URL to add mapping to your website. Ever wondered how those driving direction websites work? Hack #2 - Route Planning Online - sheds light on that one. They even go so far as to cater to the ultra-geek and explain how to build a car navigation scheme that "will consume all your time and money, but make you the jealousy of all your nerd friends". Gotta love it...
Like O'Reilly's other mapping book, this is printed in color, so you get a lot of info from the context of the figures and graphics. Nicely done. The book is likewise more prominent than a normal Hacks title. There's the usual 100 entries, but there's around 525 pages to it. You get a lot of detail on a heap of of the more complex hacks, which in my sentiment adds a lot of value to the book.
A perfective book for those looking to get their feet wet on the subject, as well as for those who are more experienced but want to learn a few new tricks. Very nicely done...
A Far Cry from the Texaco Gas Station Maps!
Nowadays it isn't with regards to merely getting data in regards to a place or location, thanks to the recent explosion of personal-GPS units, online mapping and free and low-cost satellite imagery the latest trend is to transform data into a map to present the selective information in a more dynamic and most times more usable way.
Mapping Hacks is a distinguishable book in that it will take you far beyond merely bringing up a map of Grandma's house. It will show you how to take data that you gather and use it to present maps and cartographic selective information with regards to everything from mapping the wi-fi hotspots in your area, to tracking a package as it moves throughout the globe to creating 3-D maps of your neighborhood, your city and even the entire planet. This book is for those who aren't merely satisfied with the basic selective information MapQuest or Google Maps provide, but want to take that data and use it in ways that were unheard of just a few months ago.
Though having a GPS unit to gather selective information is a great way to get the most out of this book, there are also a great deal of hacks devoted to plainly mapping out or building on top of existent data. Perhaps you want to setup a web internet site that shows all the local eateries in your neighborhood along with their latest health report -- no problem, there is a hack that will walk you right through it! This book helps open your mind to the possiblenesses of what all you may do with the data you already have. You may utilise the hack for the health code violations and then build from that to begin mapping out housing prices, or crime stats -- the future prospects or potentials are endless.
Unfortunately, the book does not cover the latest API into Google Maps -- one of the recent, and more popular resources for mappers. However, the book does cover a lot of the more established ways of accessing websites like MapQuest and Yahoo Maps. It was written so that you don't have to be a programmer or computer guru to get the most out of the book.
It's a distinguishable book (and in full color too I might add) that in truth will open your eyes and mind to the new ways of using services and info that once was only accessible to map manufacturers and businesses.