Happy Easter!
Both of these meditations were created by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington … and linked by a Minnesota Lutheran! The image shown below is artwork created by my friend, He Qi.
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In Friday’s post, I noted how I was excited about Google Map’s new visual user interface which allows an individual to create map mash-ups without the need to know programming code or scripts. As promised here is a short tutorial (six minutes) which demonstrates how easy it is to create a Google Maps mash-up.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of a mash-up, this word is used to explain the process of linking different kinds of web data … in this case maps and other web based information … to provide increased value for your customer.
You may wish to link to the map used as an example in my screencast. Click upon either of the image thumbnails to view: 1. a satellite view of my lake; 2. my Google map
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Catchy title, huh? However, it’s true. Father and son (the two nerds) discovered that Iowa Rest Stops are equipped with free wireless. Iowa is cool! If you look at the Google Maps image you’ll realize we are smack dab in the middle of nowhere (I-35 in northern Iowa) … both Minneapolis and Des Moines are over 125 miles away each. It’s traditional in the Hoeg family that the returning parent and child from any college visit trip meet at Applebee’s with the parent who stayed home. We could just use my cell phone and call my wife, but that would not be any fun! Instead, both Erik and I agreed we needed to test Iowa’s free wireless rest stops, and send my wife an email with the time to meet for the debriefing session … without the other kids.
Now this is an important point … our college visits always include a debriefing session. In a family of multiple children, it is always a treat to go to a restaurant without the other children. In addition, the parent who made the trip must remain "quiet" (in this case, me) while my son tells my wife of his impressions of each school. You will learn what your child thinks (a novel concept)!
Thank you to everyone for your comments … often with the names of schools we should consider. Over the Easter weekend, Erik and I will do some more research online. To view other posts in the college search series, link here.
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Mapping mash-ups have been the rage, but personally I’ve been "underwhelmed" with the mash-ups I’ve experienced. Why?
This may all be about to change. Today, Google has released a new service named "My Maps". Via what appears to be an easy graphical interface, one may now create "and share" mash-ups. This new feature should increase geometrically the mash-ups available, and content will now be created by normal folk (or nearer to normal)! Over the weekend, I’ll play around with this service and post more comments, perhaps even a screencast.
Ziff Davis has an article you may wish to read about the new Google service.
The parent’s perspective goes on … We’ve visited three schools in the past three days. Life is different from when I chose Dartmouth (and they chose me) back in the Spring of 1974. Last night in our Super 8 Motel near Iowa City, I looked over and realized Erik was leading three different Google Chats on the laptop. One conversation was with a friend who had just visited MIT and RPI … they were comparing notes.
Some of the comments …
Here is where life gets interesting. In my prior post, I mentioned that Erik had learned about WPI’s robotics program via the NXT Blog. Well … that blog learned of Erik’s quest, and linked / posted. My blog stats show tons of referrals back to this blog.
In addition, a freshman from the Olin School of Engineering stumbled upon my first posting, and emailed me. Erik and I checked out Olin’s web site ast night, and given our experiences at the "big" schools, it looks like we will delete MIT from our visit list, and check out Olin instead. Check out Olin’s student blog. It appears Olin has a unique approach to engineering education.
We finished our evening with a call home … via the phone … no! … Skype!